Coromandel fast food stoush brews

Not everyone is loving the idea of a fast food giant making Whitianga home.

Plans were lodged with the Thames-Coromandel District Council last month for a fast food outlet to be built on a 254 sqm site on the corner of Joan Gaskell Drive and State Highway 25. The area is part of the Whitianga Waterways development.

Colin Stewart, a local of 38 years, said he’d ‘‘seen it all change’’ but did not want to see a commercial fast food outlet introduced to the town. He noted the town already had a Subway.

‘‘Is commercialism going to empty out the original town centre?’’

Whitianga’s main street is largely populated by local takeaways, rather than big brand names.

Stewart said he had heard of someone trying to introduce a McDonald’s to the town ‘‘some years ago’’, but McDonald’s did not make the move because they had not been guaranteed a high enough annual turnover, he said.

Another local, Gaia Hendrikse-Strydom, said she thought a major fast food chain would ‘‘be better for our town’’.

She said she often heard tourists complaining about not being able to buy food if they arrived late at night because ‘‘the shops shut early’’.

‘‘It provides more business for the town.’’

Grace Wilesmith, who has lived in Whitianga her whole life, supported the idea of introducing a fast food outlet to the town.

‘‘It brings more jobs into the town. The people that don’t like it don’t need to use it,’’ she said.

An issue she found in the town was that ‘‘people are stuck in their ways’’.

‘‘They struggle with Whitianga being a growing town.’’

Tourists visiting Whitianga also had split opinions on the plans.

James Pollifrone, who was visiting with friends from Australia, said he arrived in Whitianga at 10pm and ‘‘couldn’t even get milk or bread’’.

He said whilst cafes and restaurants were nice, fast food outlets could be good for families with young children because they are ‘‘hassle free’’.

However, other visitors Craig and Suzanne Stanton were against the idea.

Suzanne said, ‘‘In Australia [fast food outlets] are everywhere. It’s nice to come to a place where you don’t have that.’’

Craig said it would ‘‘drag some of the character away from the place. . .

‘‘[Towns] just get generic when you introduce commercialism.’’

Whitianga Waterways development project manager Peter Abrahamson said no discussions had begun with businesses yet for who would occupy the site. ‘‘There is no time frame on that.’’

He said the development was trying to ‘‘be transparent with signalling the plans’’ to the community and taking the opportunity to show what the site could look like.

Abrahamson said they had not received any negative feedback about the plans and found it ‘‘quite relaxed’’.