POWER held by the liquor licensing board "needs to be increased to allow for harsher scrutiny of bottle shop developments".
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Uniting Care Tasmania chief executive Lindy O'Neill said she held concerns regarding further interest from liquor companies to move into Launceston.
Ms O'Neill said there needed to be stricter rules in place to assess and prevent over-saturation of alcohol outlets in Tasmanian towns and cities.
"We've been involved in a couple of appeals to have bottle shops not put in the Ravenswood area," she said.
"We absolutely failed with the appeal to put one in the Kmart complex, basically because we had no grounds with our concerns that they're not helpful to the community."
She said depression, anxiety, domestic violence and unemployment were linked to excessive consumption of alcohol - none of which were the responsibility of distributors once patrons left their premises.
TasCOSS chief executive Kym Goodes said communities should take every opportunity to be engaged in discussions about what they expected for their towns.
"In terms of our overall planning across cities and communities, we need to think about the social implications," Ms Goodes said.
"This is why it's important, with the state government releasing the current planning scheme, to engage in consultation and not wait until afterwards."
A state government spokeswoman said the government was satisfied with the role of the liquor licensing board.