'It hurts us in lots of ways' - small business owners under stress due to Auckland's City Rail Link project

May 15, 2019

Some are threatening to protest over lack of action from the council.

The country’s largest ever transport project is causing major stress to some Auckland CBD business owners who now want compensation for the disruption and loss of revenue it’s caused.

Roma Florist, based in Albert Street says it has suffered business losses because of the City Rail Link (CRL) project.

Owners Shobhana Ranchhodji and Jugdish Naran say they don’t know from one day to the next how business is going to do.

"It’s hurt us in lots of ways," says Mr Naran.

"We just don’t know - we either over buy or under buy because we’re not certain with the public, what they are going to be doing. If there’s too much noise they are going to walk a different way.

"If there are too many workers in their way, they are going to go a different way," says Ms Ranchhodji.

She says they bought the shop for a retail presence but they are not getting the revenue that they should because of the disruption caused by the CRL project.

Sean Sweeney says CRL does not have the funding to compensate businesses.

But CRLL CEO, Sean Sweeney, says there won’t be compensation from CRL for any Auckland CBD businesses over disruption caused by the project.

Speaking to 1 NEWS today, he said there are “limits to what we can do.”

“I don’t have the funding or the remit or the mechanism to assess compensation.

“There’s a Public Works Act and that’s the avenue for people to address claims of compensation,” he says.

Mr Sweeney says that if business owners want to sit down with him he would be “happy to do that.”

He says the project has gone slower through a whole range of issues but that businesses will be made aware of timelines.

“The project will run into late 2020 as a result of the extra works that we are going to do at the same time,” he says.

Meanwhile, a number of business owners have met with National MP for Auckland Central, Nikki Kaye today to discuss the scale of disruption caused by the CRL project.

They believe the council should provide some sort of relief from the loss of revenue that the CRL project has caused them.

"I think they’ve been hit very hard, and the Auckland Council in my view does have other options like rates relief, potentially," says Ms Kaye.

She said the response from the Auckland Council and other entities had been inadequate.

"I don’t have confidence, because of the history, that they are going to front up and give us a timeline or give you (business owners) the actual support that they need given," she says.

The meeting comes as the Stamford Plaza in Albert St has threatened court action to force a halt to construction of a section of the City Rail Link.

A legal representative of the luxury Hotel sent a strongly worded letter to the CRL company insisting that it stop operations because of excessive dust, noise and vibration and loss of access to the hotel.

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