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Specialist vape retailers approved after 17 December 2024
New applications for specialist vape retailers (SVRs) cannot be approved if they are located within 100 metres of registered early childhood education services (ECEs) and since 21 September 2023 if they are located within 300 metres of registered schools and marae.
How the requirement applies
From 17 December 2024 any new applications to be a specialist vape retailer (SVR) store will need to be located more than 100 metres from an Early Childhood Education Centre (ECE). This is in addition to the requirement from 21 September 2023 that all stores are located more than 300 metres from schools and marae.
If you are considering purchasing an existing specialist store, it is advisable to check that it is located far enough away from the legal boundary of any registered schools, marae and ECEs in the area before completing the purchase. See the below section Check the location of a proposed SVR store for instructions on how to check this.
The location requirement does not apply to general retailer (GR) stores. A general retailer is usually a dairy, service station or supermarket that sells a limited range of vape flavours (tobacco, menthol and mint including peppermint and spearmint).
How the distance is measured
The Ministry of Health uses an online GIS tool to measure the straightline distance from the proposed vape store to the legal boundary of any registered school, marae and ECE.
The GIS tool uses the following information:
- school and ECE location data from Ministry of Education website
- marae location data from the Ministry of Māori Development—Te Puni Kōkiri website, and
- Land Information New Zealand boundary data from NZ primary land parcels and NZ facilities.
If any proposed vape store is located 300 meters or less from the boundary of a school or marae, or 100 meters or less from an ECE boundary, the application will be declined.
Check the location of a proposed SVR business
To check whether a proposed new store is more than 300 metres away from a school or marae, or more than 100 metres from an ECE use our Pre-application location assessment tool. The public location tool uses the same sources of information as the Ministry when carrying out their assessments.
Please note the Ministry will assess the distance of every application, even if you have already checked yourself. The check by the Ministry is the only measurement that will be considered during the assessment. You do not need to provide evidence that you have already performed this measurement as part of your application.
How to use the location tool
- Open the tool on this link: Pre-application location assessment tool, and follow the below steps
- Start typing the proposed vape store address into the “a) Search address” bar on the left and select the right address from the drop-down list.
- If you want to move the dark blue dot that shows the location of your proposed vape store (for example if your vape store is in a shopping mall):
- Select the “point” tool -the vertical flag left most under location
- You can then move the dark blue dot on the map to the correct location using your mouse and click to set the location point.
- The map will then show a red circle around your vape store, which is a 300 metre radius.
- If there are any school (dark blue shapes), marae (yellow shapes) within 300m or ECE (green shapes) boundaries within 100 metres they will appear listed on the left of the page under the headings “School polygon” or “Marae polygon” on the left of the map.
- The name of the school, marae or ECE and the straight-line distance in metres from the store will show on this list.
- If there are any schools or marae less than 300 metres, or any ECEs less than 100 metres from your proposed store, then it is likely that your application will be declined if you still choose to apply.
