Goff hints at CRL help fund
Businesses hard hit by $4.4 billion project could get some form of financial aid
Auckland Mayor Phil Goff is proposing a hardship fund for businesses struggling to survive along the route of the $4.4 billion City Rail Link. After months of pressure from businesses whose livelihoods and mental health have suffered, Goff said a targeted hardship fund would provide financial assistance to small businesses facing exceptional hardship.
He indicated the fund would be established by the company building the City Rail Link and need Government approval. Council and the Government jointly fund the project.
Details of the hardship package had still to be finalised, a mayoral spokesman said.
Transport Minister Phil Twyford told the Herald yesterday “we’re not considering cash payments” but was open to ideas to help affected businesses.
The mayor has been under pressure from the lobby group Heart of the City which wants a hardship fund
along the lines set up in Sydney for a light rail project.
At a meeting attended by eight councillors and a dozen people whose premises have been affected by the works, the councillors supported a call from Heart of the City chief executive Viv Beck for Auckland to follow Sydney’s lead which has seen 153 businesses receive $35 million.
Goff said: “I’m not proposing a ‘Sydney style’ compensation package. I’m proposing a much more targeted fund.”
Business owners affected by long delays on the CRL works up Albert St wanted to know from the councillors, Beck and Auckland Central MP Nikki Kaye, when to expect help.
Mike Lee, the councillor for the central city, said there was a model for providing financial help and that was the “Sydney solution”.
“You have a fair case and I’m confident we can come up with a fair and rigorous process to give you a fair outcome,” said Lee, saying the money should come from the large
Every day begins for us with stress and ends in depression. Sunny Kaushal
contingency fund in the $4.4b CRL budget. The effects of the prolonged disruption on small businesses was clear to see at the meeting.
The owner of a small supermarket on Albert St, who did not want to be named, said he had been hit with a $5000 penalty from his landlord after being unable to pay rent for three months and threatened with legal action if he did not pay up by today.
Florist Shobhana Ranchhodji said for council to expect businesses to hold their breath from the time the project started in 2016 until it is completed in 2024 was impossible.
Bo Manoonpong, who runs the Grasshopper and Mai Thai restaurants in Albert St and Victoria St, said the CRL works had been very bad for businesses and bad for her health. “We need the financial assistance package as soon as possible.”
Sunny Kaushal, who runs the Shakespeare Tavern and is a spokesman for affected businesses, told politicians at yesterday’s meeting the CRL had destroyed businesses in the vicinity of Albert St and shattered the lives of families.
“Every day begins for us with stress and ends in depression,” he said.
Kaye said she had never spent so much time on a constituency issue or witnessed “the level of lifewrecking, unfairness and stonewalling that needs to be rectified”.
“It is my strong view this is a unique situation where the scale of the delays and their impact has been so significant that a small package should be developed for businesses.”
Beck said she understands the Government’s reluctance to offer compensation and the precedent it would set. But hardship was different to compensation because it was about people struggling with circumstances outside their control from the extreme length of a project.