Plea for dialogue around pedestrian-only trial

Harbour St Collective Cafe co-owner Bruce Blackie says he has still not had any meaningful dialogue with the Waitaki District Council about the three-day-a-week pedestrian-only experiment in the Oamaru historic area.

Mr Blackie raised concerns late last year about the lack of communication between the council and Harbour St businesses.

After a trial period of Saturday and Sunday closures, last October the council voted to close the street to motor vehicles on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays this summer, through to Easter.

The Otago Daily Times reported in December Mr Blackie’s concern that his business was "probably about 30% down on our turnover on a Friday compared to before the closure".

This week, he delivered a letter to councillors, signed by six other Harbour St businesses, in the hope of bringing the length of the closure back to their attention.

"The next morning all hell broke loose," Mr Blackie said about the council’s response to the ODT report.

But other than the one day, speaking with the mayor and Deputy Mayor Melanie Tavendale, he had not met anybody from the council about the three-day closure.

"I am obviously expecting a call from Gary [Mr Kircher], or someone, at some stage as a response to the letter, which I haven’t had so far, which I am pretty disappointed in.

"We gave them fair time to think about it and respond and of course nothing happened."

In the letter, he writes he does "not have a lot of trust" in the council.

"We’re asking them to take the Friday off the closing, because that wasn’t agreed to at all back when the trial was conducted."

Mr Kircher said last  week the council had made a decision based on the information it had gathered and had carefully weighed the results of a survey conducted of area businesses.

The closure was in place and would be reviewed after Easter, but he had no plans to negotiate the terms of the street’s closure before then.

"We want this to be successful for everyone. We accept that it won’t necessarily be ... but if it is successful for the majority. We have to consider all of those options," Mr Kircher said.

Last year, Mr Kircher said the "majority" of businesses preferred the option of a seven-day-a-week closure.

But Mr Blackie bristled at the suggestion the three-day-a-week closure could be a first step towards a seven-day-a-week closure in the future.‘‘Better not be, mate,’’ he said.

"That’s the reason we had the trial.

"Seven-day-a-week closure is absolutely what we all want," Mr Blackie said.

"But we want to be able to survive in business at the same time."

hamish.maclean@odt.co.nz