‘Raw deal’ creates sour taste
Debbie Hamel says she was buzzing at the prospect of adding coffee to the menu of her smoothie cart in Sundial Square at Richmond, near Nelson, and moving her business to a prime site in the piazza.
‘‘I was so motivated,’’ Hamel said. ‘‘I went to do a [barista] course. I made inquiries about getting a coffee machine.’’
However, instead of flat whites and short blacks, the director of Debz Smoothies Ltd ended up brewing a case and taking Tasman District Council to the Disputes Tribunal. The council recently paid her more than $5600 in compensation for a lost opportunity to make those espressos from a new location in the square.
The matter started in late 2019 when Hamel made an agreement with the council to add coffee and shift her cart from its spot on the square’s southeast corner to a site adjacent to Queen St. A coffee cart had been operating for many years in that prime location but was going to be moved, so the spot was to become vacant.
However, on November 21, 2019 – a day after Hamel dropped an acceptance letter to the council about adding coffee and shifting her cart, as the council had requested – she heard the matter was on ice.
An email from a council staff member to Hamel says that some ‘‘elected council members’’ had asked how the coffee cart site was being handled.
‘‘Thus, we are now needing to pause the decision about shifting you into [the coffee cart] site until the members have all their questions answered and then see if they agree with us about this idea,’’ the email says. ‘‘I am sorry for the complication, but it is out of my hands.’’
Mayor Tim King last week confirmed he raised the matter with staff, asking if there would be an opportunity for people to put in expressions of interest for the coffee cart site.
‘‘I don’t think I was the only one [elected member],’’ he said.
When suggested the matter was more operational than governance, King said he spent ‘‘half my life’’ on operational issues.
‘‘There is no hard and fast line,’’ he said. ‘‘I was contacted, I raised the issue.’’
While he could understand Hamel’s disappointment, King said he believed it was the right process to open the vacant site to expressions of interest from anyone, which is what the council did.
Hamel said the council should have asked for expressions of interest initially, not after an agreement had been reached that her business could move to that site.
‘‘I was given a raw deal.’’ Council community relations manager Chris Choat said the council had accepted the findings of the Disputes Tribunal and paid the money.
Asked about the council process for handling vacant spots, Choat said if staff were aware of ‘‘multiple interest’’ for a particular site, a public process may be undertaken.
‘‘However, this is relatively time-consuming and expensive,’’ he said. ‘‘In some cases throughout the district, judgement calls on sites are made as to the cost of a full public process vis-a-vis the return. We are likely to continue this approach.’’
Elected members asked whether the site should be publicly tendered ... ‘‘also due to growing numbers of prospective businesses expressing interest in the site’’. Hamel has since sold her cart. ‘‘I was so disappointed with what they did to me, and with the Covid-19 lockdown, I stopped it.’’
‘‘There is no hard and fast line. I was contacted, I raised the issue.’’
Tasman mayor Tim King