Collins said during the road closure, she often shut halfway through the day as it was empty.
“Of course, I still had to pay staff a full day. Our business was crippled.”
Blueberry Corner berry farm manager Verna Falwasser said farms such as Blueberry Corner and R&Bs, also on Thornton Rd, which sell real fruit soft serve ice creams and other treats as well as berries, were open only six to seven months of the year.
“We opened this year on October 9. Five days later that road was closed. Straight away, no customers, no cars.”
She said Blueberry Corner employed more than 50 local people over summer. She had put 15 new shop staff through a three-hour induction and barista training the week before opening, then had to tell them they weren’t needed.
She said although her employers were not seeking compensation from the council, she wanted the council to be more aware of the impact their actions had on businesses that were reliant on passing traffic.
Both women accepted the road maintenance needed to be done but said better communication could have minimised damage to their businesses.
In spite of both businesses having mailboxes, they say they did not receive the council notice that was delivered to residents affected by the works.
“I didn’t get a flyer. I don’t sit on Facebook and read the notifications from council . . . I don’t have time,” Falwasser said.
“We opened [for the summer] on a Wednesday. Thursday morning a customer told me, ‘don’t forget the road’s closing on Monday’. From then on I went into a tailspin.”
She said signs diverting all traffic between Whakatāne and Tauranga via Edgecumbe, placed at the State Highway 30 intersection of Thornton Rd and north of the Matatā township, had not only affected Thornton Rd businesses.
“I called into the shops at Matatā and they were affected, too,” Falwasser said.
People coming from Tauranga were told the road through Matatā was closed except to residents.
Another detour for light traffic had been available via Greig Rd which would have taken traffic past their businesses.
“There was no planning, no thought, nobody cared.”
Collins said she had met with council staff in December, who told her they were satisfied they had carried out a comprehensive publicity campaign before the works, including notices in residents’ mailboxes, newspaper advertising and social media posts.
The business owner said on a previous occasion she had been paid $4500 compensation by the council for loss to her business because of poor communication but had been refused when she asked this time.
She said in that case, the council had accepted there had been inadequate notice of work that had a direct impact on her business.
Both women addressed the council’s infrastructure and planning committee recently about the impact of the lack of communication on their businesses and Collins again informed them she wished to be compensated.
Council chief executive Steven Perdia said councils did not pay compensation when works occurred around households and businesses.
“The cost would be enormous to ratepayers. [Works] occur every day of every year with every council and they are always affecting people.
“There is an assumption that over time, everyone is affected by some work, but at the end of the day the outcome of that work is that we maintain a fit-for-purpose district.”
- LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.
