No chance to have say disappoints

Dish Cafe co-owner Vicky Pope was disappointed she was unable to speak on the planned revamp of the shopping centre surrounding the business. FILE PHOTO

First St business owner Vicky Pope was disappointed she had not been able to voice her concerns at Masterton's policy and finance meeting yesterday, in which the Lansdowne Village Plan was approved.

The Dish Cafe co-owner said she wanted to tell councillors that she was not happy with the plan but she felt discouraged after the council's response to her asking a question regarding the "inaccurate scale" of the plan.

Mayor Lyn Patterson told her that it was "a bit unusual that we allow questions from the floor" but said it should be addressed.

Mrs Pope said she was then unable to express how she felt, owing to restrictions on questions from the gallery.

"We had a lot of flak back from our customers because [the plan is] not drawn to scale," she told the Times-Age after the meeting.

"They are questioning that we're paying a lot of money to have this drawn, so why isn't it to scale so we can see an accurate plan?

"It's worrying that council would approve something when no one can tell us what will actually happen and what it will actually look like.

"I wanted to say that no, we aren't happy with the plan, but I didn't know that you could not speak at the meetings."