Waikouaiti Coast Community Board member Les Pullar will be
pleased when the Waikouaiti petrol pumps reopen next month.
Photo by Jane Dawber.
Fuel sales will resume at the Waikouaiti service station
on February 1, when service will be available 24 hours a day
using a card pay system.
"It's excellent news, as far as we're concerned," Waikouaiti
Coast Community Board member Les Pullar said on Saturday.
"It's the convenience of it that makes all the difference. It
meant either a half-hour drive to Dunedin or a 10-minute
drive to Palmerston."
The announcement was also welcomed by board chairman Gerard
Collings, who said fuel prices would be "comparable" to
Dunedin prices.
Board members would be present at the service station at
arranged times to help people get used to the new sales
system, he said.
The months of negotiation had produced a good result for
Waikouaiti residents and businesses, Mr Collings said.
Having to buy fuel in Dunedin or Palmerston during the months
the pumps were closed had been a "huge inconvenience",
Dunedin City councillor for the Waikouaiti Coast-Chalmers
ward Andrew Noone said yesterday.
It was important that Waikouaiti residents, farmers and
businesses supported the station when it reopened to ensure
the viability of the service station, he said.
While there was some resentment at the way fuel distributor
Greenstone Energy closed the service station so quickly after
a truck crashed into its canopy on August 18, business owners
told the Otago Daily Times they strongly supported the
re-opening.
One business owner said it was a "total nuisance" to have to
go to Palmerston or Dunedin to buy fuel almost every day.
A spokesman for Greenstone said after the closure the
Waikouaiti service station would have been closed before the
end of the year anyway, because it was not viable.
Greenstone will supply fuel to South Fuels, the new operator
of the Waikouaiti service station.
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