Businesses are paying a very high price for mistakes of politicians

“SHARE the dream” was the motto. We shopkeepers “shared the nightmare”

It all started when the politicians decided to win the Commonwealth Games, we needed a more efficient transport system throughout the city.

A local engineer proposed a solar powered monorail system, above ground, not interfering with parking, traffic flows etc (it was knocked back because some genius in government made a $270,000,000 adding mistake!) yes a 270 million dollar “small error.”

These geniuses are running the state. God help Queensland!

So even though the tram destroyed the heart of Adelaide, the idiots decided it would be nice to have a tram set here on the Gold Coast.

Thus began the first nightmare. We shopkeepers sat around, paying wages and ridiculous rents etc, while the so-called workers sat around, dragging out the construction as long as possible.

Consequently the locals could not get into town to shop and the main drag of the heart of the Gold Coast was a construction mess for years.

Soon businesses started to close, over the years hundreds went bust, people lost houses, investment properties etc (banks didn’t care they just wanted their money) and staff lost jobs.

Since completion businesses continued to close, the trams took out 1000 car spaces and there is nowhere to park your vehicle (our mayor Tate is selling our only parking station in town, which will obviously result in a loss of jobs and less locals and customers coming into the heart of town... bloody genius).

During construction my turnover dropped by several hundred thousand dollars and has never recovered. This, of course, resulted in more loss of jobs, we couldn’t afford to keep them.

And lastly, the nightmare began again, GOLDOC headed by the hapless Peter Beattie, convinced locals to keep away because of perceived traffic congestion. Locals obliged and they left town in droves, taking their money with them, resulting in the worst Easter holiday trading in 15 years and more losses. This loss of trade continued through the ten days of the Games.

Now the New South Wales school holidays have arrived and because of the bad publicity and the high rents they have chosen to stay away from our beautiful city, more losses.

We business people, both current and past, who have suffered under this idiocy should take a class action against those responsible, GOLDOC, Mayor Tate and Peter Beattie (Beattie told us to suck it up and Tate told us to change our product mix, no apology or responsibility taken for driving our customers away).

Every single shopkeeper in Surfers Paradise and Broadbeach is fed up with the GCCC destroying our city and our tourism industry that fuels so many local and family-owned businesses.

Is there anyone who can help us put a stop to this idiocy and take back our town?

Any pro bono lawyers out there to help us?

How do you leave the Gold Coast with a million dollars? You come here with three.

FRANK BAILEY, ZANETTES GELATI, CHEVRON RENAISSANCE