Florist pleads for Valentine’s help
Major roadworks are cutting off flower shop from customers
A small city florist is pleading with Auckland Transport to put roadworks outside her shop on hold around Valentine’s Day.
The February 14 Feast of Saint Valentine is the busiest day of the year for Amanda Browne’s Victoria Park Flowers, where she has worked for 15 years.
Browne is dealing with a disruptive roadworks operation extending 1km along Victoria St West on the edge of Auckland’s CBD. Crews are building a cycleway and resurfacing the road.
The work, she says, is making her stressed.
The project is set to last at least until April, and Browne is alarmed the maze of pedestrian barriers and traffic cones will impede business on Valentine’s Day.
“It’s the busiest day of the year. It’s also the craziest day and I have no control over the demand for flowers,” Browne said.
“We need access, not for just one or two people, we need lots of access.
“There’s no parking anymore, no loading zone. So all the stock I get in I’m going to have to transport into the shop somehow.
“At the moment they’re doing the opposite side so it’s not affecting me so much, but they need to redo the footpath on my side. That’s the part I dread.
“I hope they don’t have just roadworks and construction going through the whole street — people will just avoid my shop.”
The four-lane road has been reduced to one each way via lines of traffic cones and barriers, Traffic jams are extensive during peak hour. Pedestrians are directed along lanes protected by wire fences.
Downer Group, which is doing the work, has told residents and firms along Victoria St West completion of a cycleway, new bus stops, kerb and gutter upgrades, and the relocation of eight trees will take until late February.
Stage two will resurface the street from late February.
A six-week stage three will then lay a coloured surface on the cycleway and install concrete separators.
Browne has been in contact with Auckland Transport and Downer since before Christmas over the prospect of having roadwork relief for the Valentine’s Day week in February.
After the Weekend Herald contacted AT and Downer this week, a meeting has been set up for Monday afternoon between the two companies and Browne at her flower shop.
It’s the busiest day of the year. We need access; we need lots of access. Amanda Browne
“A member of Auckland Transport’s communications team has been talking to Amanda Browne by email and along with Downers we are looking at the work schedule around Valentine’s Day,” AT spokesman Mark Hannan said.
“Valentine’s Day is still more than a month away so plenty of time to sort things out.”
Last week, when the Herald reported on the extensive roadworks across 33 city streets that Aucklanders would have to return to after the holidays, AT admitted the scale of roadworks this holiday period was above average.
“We try to get as much done at this time of year because it’s quiet and the weather is good,” Hannan said.
“There is a lot this year but it happens every year.
“We find things don’t get back to normal until Anniversary Weekend.”
Aside from the commercial strife the roadworks are causing for Browne, a literal headache from the construction is also causing her to despair, as she lives in an apartment above her 124 Victoria St West store.
“I kind of joke about it but sometimes when I talk to people it does feel a little bit like PTSD,” she said.
“I’m in the shop and all you can hear is people tooting. Oh my God the other day I almost went outside and just yelled at someone.
“I didn’t, but I was going to be like a crazy woman.”
Adding to the mental exhaustion, Browne is recovering from brain surgery in November last year.
The surgery discovered a benign lump.
“There’s probably worse things in life [than the roadworks], like I’ve just had brain surgery.
“But just the consistency of tooting . . . ” Browne said.
“All we hear is screeching outside and we think ‘that one must have been a close call’.
“It is just crazy, just constant. “I’ve lived there for 10 years but what’s going on right outside is a little bit much.”