Brent Barrett: Palmerston North City Councillor stands by proposed fizzy drink ban at sports grounds

One councillor's standing by a proposed fizzy drink ban, despite community pushback.

Palmerston North City Council has proposed to include Central Energy Trust Arena in its sugary drinks ban - among other venues.

The council says the draft policy's aim is to promote a healthy lifestyle.

Councillor Brent Barrett says he knows pushing for the right thing isn't always popular.  

"We know there's a direct line between sugar and the kind of pressure that comes on our health system through rotting teeth, diabetes, obesity, etc... we want to see if there's community appetite for change." 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Bryan Bridge.

Speaker 2 (00:01):
Palmerston North Mayor Grant Smith has spoken out against a
proposal to ban the sale of fizzy drinks. It's some
major sport venues in the city. Council staff put the
proposal to the council as a way of improving oral
health in the region. The mayor says people should be
able to make their own decisions about what they can
purchase and drink. Now. Brent Barnett, Sorry, Brent Barrett is

(00:23):
a Palmeston North City councilor and he is with me
this evening.

Speaker 1 (00:27):
Hello, Brent, Hey, how are you going good?

Speaker 2 (00:30):
Thank you? Whose mad idea was this?

Speaker 1 (00:33):
Yeah, So we've taken a proposal out to the community
and it strengthens a position that we were in in
twenty seventeen. And the reason for that is that we
know there is a direct line between sugar and the
kind of pressure that comes on our health system through
writing to use diabetes, et cetera. We want to see
is their community appetite for any kind of change?

Speaker 2 (00:52):
So do you support the change? Do you support banning
you know, a coke zero a coke or a pepsi
or whatever at the council venue.

Speaker 1 (01:00):
But I'd like to see us find ways to reduce
the harm that sugar causes in the community. So I'm
open to options there and I appreciate the community feedback here.
It's given me some thinking about some way as we
might approach it.

Speaker 2 (01:13):
But how so, because a lot of people are talking
about the children and their teeth, the tooth decay, how
is stopping someone having a coke at the Palmerston North
Conventions into going and fix that problem?

Speaker 1 (01:24):
Do you think what it's going to do is a
couple of things. It would if it goes ahead, send
a signal out broadly to the community that hey, just
another reminder of these things aren't the healthiest and that's
probably the strongest thing that it would do. And obviously
it would change what would happen in the venue itself.

Speaker 2 (01:44):
Aren't you just killing the fun?

Speaker 1 (01:48):
I think what we're doing at this point is listening
to the community. So the communities come back to so
what their preferences are. Am I thinking is that we
need to listen to that. And it happened to whether
eruptions will take because it's like won't.

Speaker 2 (02:03):
But it's like it's eighty percent again, So if you're listening,
then the answer would be a big wouldn't it.

Speaker 1 (02:10):
Well, I think sometimes what you're faced with is that
the right thing isn't always the popular thing. And I'm
coming to the meeting with an open minded march and
see where the debate goes.

Speaker 2 (02:19):
Well, that's a big one. Thank you very much for that.
Nice to have you on the program. That's Brent Barrett.
He's the Palmerston North City councilor sometimes the right thing
isn't always the popular thing. For more from Hither Duplessy
Allen Drive, listen live to news talks.

Speaker 1 (02:34):
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