Works close business

Dave Gallagher of Lansdowne Butchery has been trying to revive his business after two lots of First St roadworks this year.

A Masterton business owner has been forced to permanently close up shop this Christmas as a result of looming roadworks for the First St upgrade in March.

Owner of Lansdowne Butchery on First St, Dave Gallagher, said he has been forced to close the retail side of his business as a result of low turnover following two lots of roadworks this year.

He said the retail side of his business would not survive further works planned in March for the street's upgrade which will cost ratepayers $383,600 to implement.

Lansdowne Butchery will stop retail sales on December 24.

A public meeting was held last week which established that the works, which included the undergrounding of power and street refurbishment, would run from March to June next year.

Mr Gallagher spoke out about concerns for himself and other businesses at the meeting, requesting that the works be postponed a year to allow for businesses to recover from the unrelated water and sewer main roadworks that occurred this year. This request was denied.

"I just wanted the next lot of works to be postponed so I could recover and so the other businesses could recover, because we've all suffered from the months of roadwork we've had to put up with this year," he said. "I know of one business in particular that only turned over $25 for one day. That's nothing, that's not even covering petrol costs.

"Unfortunately, the working party and the council aren't going to listen. Well, they're going to listen, but they're going to ignore us, and go ahead with the roadworks anyway.

"And when there's roadworks in a street where the road is actually trenched so nobody can get down it, there won't be any turnover, and a business with no turnover won't survive."

Mr Gallagher said he is looking at other options for income including going to market in Wellington or doing home processing.

At last week's public meeting, it was also asked that the roadworks for the First St upgrade be carried out through the night as to not affect business turnover, however because First St is a residential area, council staff said this option was not viable.

"Other councils throughout New Zealand do them at night, because they look after their businesses - because the businesses are the backbone and engine of the economy," Mr Gallagher said. "If you start losing businesses, you start losing jobs and people don't have any money, it has a negative flow-on effect.

"As it stands at the moment, the council should be taking a couple of jobs off their thermometer that they've got there instead of putting them on because as far as I'm concerned, their decisions and lack of proper consultation with business is directly responsible for what's happening."

Mr Gallagher said with each lot of roadworks, more and more people bypassed First St. He said that for businesses who are heavily reliant on traffic to survive, another lot of roadworks would be disastrous. "It's great having a nice, new area but if you don't have the businesses left because they've had to fold, it's a waste of time."