Offer of hostel for port work
The owner of a backpacker hostel in Picton has offered to sell his property to help house the 200 workers needed to build a new multimillion-dollar ferry terminal.
The project – a partnership between Port Marlborough, the Marlborough District Council, Kiwirail and Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency – was approved last week and is needed to accommodate Kiwirail’s new larger ferries.
The council’s Long Term Plan, which is open for feedback, said the ferry terminal was one of two projects set to ‘‘stretch’’ Marlborough’s ‘‘already very tight housing supply’’.
Options to help ease it ‘‘could include hotels, motels and camping grounds.’’
Temporary worker villages could also be the answer, the Long Term Plan said, provided suitable sites could be found.
This approach was used in Kaiko¯ ura to house people working on the road and railway rebuild along the South Island’s east coast after the earthquake.
A Waka Kotahi spokeswoman said the village provided a stable base for those who lived away from their families.
Workers were offered a full cooked breakfast, and a meal voucher to spend a local cafe´ s and restaurants, she said.
The Villa Backpackers Lodge owner Rob Burn said there were few spaces in Picton large enough to cater for a worker village but there was land available in Koromiko, south of Picton.
Burn said he would be ‘‘happy’’ to sell his 15-room villa – located 300 metres from the terminal – to the cause. ‘‘I am all for the project. We can’t escape from the fact we are a transport hub and tourism town,’’ he said.
‘‘Housing that number of
workers is going to be a challenge because we know we have a busy building scene here in Marlborough, with several big overlapping projects.’’
The redevelopment of the ferry terminal was due to start the same year as Marlborough’s co-located colleges project and Blenheim’s new Summerset retirement village. ‘‘The challenge for accommodation providers is if we house these workers, where are we going to put those needing social housing or tourists when they come back?’’
Tombstone Motel, Lodge and Backpackers owner Nikki Husband said accommodation providers would also have to factor in pre-existing bookings and their own capacities. Providers would also need to consider whether to drop tourists, who were willing to pay each night, for workers who would pay weekly rent, Husband said.
Sounds Vista B&B owner and B&M Properties owner Brent Rollinson said people would rent bedrooms or holiday homes to construction workers if promised a good return. This would be $450-$500 a week for a three-bed home, or $200-$230 a week for a room.
Harcourts Picton sales consultant Carolyn Burn said workers coming in from other regions could make Picton’s housing market more competitive and even drive up prices.
‘‘Some who come here will want to buy a house. There will be others who need to rent places. But there are not a lot of rentals here in Picton and not a lot for sale either,’’ she said. ‘‘The solution is not to fill up our hotels and motels with workers.
‘‘If that happened, it would kill our tourism industry, because there would be nowhere for our visitors to stay.’’
She said workers should be ‘‘spread’’ between accommodation providers and private properties.
Port Marlborough chief executive Rhys Welbourn said the 200 fulltime workers set to be employed by the project would not be there ‘‘from day one’’ or stay for its duration. Some workers might already live in Marlborough and use the project as an opportunity to upskill.
Welbourn said the project had huge potential to benefit the region.
Kiwirail chief operating officer David Gordon agreed. ‘‘We anticipate the construction workforce will be easily housed within Waitohi/picton and Blenheim environs, through a mix of accommodation options,’’ Gordon said.
A council spokesman said the region had historically coped with extra worker accommodation on large projects, through private providers, and the hotel and motel sector. ‘‘For example, during the State Highway 1 rail rebuild in 2017 and during the grape harvest each year, large numbers of temporary staff have been accommodated.’’
Marlborough mayor John Leggett said work was already under way to see what accommodation might be needed.
‘‘Anyone working in those sorts of environments needs to be well looked after and we have that opportunity.
‘‘There will definitely be economic benefits to workers living here.’’
Council chief executive Mark Wheeler said it was not the council’s responsibility to find labour or accommodation. But it could help groups in charge, either by providing information on potential accommodation or regulating any new accommodation proposed.