Eureka Cafe and Bar owner Sharleen Smith also said explanations offered by the Dunedin City Council for why some Albany St businesses were not initially consulted about the Albany St Connection project included that paperwork “must have blown away in the wind” or was thrown in the rubbish.
The project aims to provide a safe walking and cycling connection between the shared Te Aka Ōtākou harbour path, Dunedin’s tertiary area and the CBD.
The council says it planned to contact the business owners again regarding their concerns “about now”, but that it is no longer necessary since it is now re-consulting on parking changes following legal advice.
Businesses are encouraged to “share their views too”.
Mrs Smith said she believed a total of 10 businesses on the street were in a similar situation to her.
“Not one of us got a piece of paper, a face-to-face or anything, an email, to do with the consultation period before this was going to go to a vote.”
She provided the ODT with a July 2023 email to the council from her landlord, Greg Paterson, in which he said most of the businesses in Albany St had reportedly not been contacted.
His tenants, Eureka Cafe and Bar, The Flying Squid, Formosa Delight, A+ Burgers, Sushi Station and Leith Liquorland all wanted to be heard, have the chance to object formally and have input into the process, he said.
The whole process had been a “shambles”, Mrs Smith said.
Affected businesses met members of the council’s transport department at Eureka in October 2023.
They gave reasons for the perceived lack of consultation that were “flippant” and rude, Mrs Smith said.
“[A staff member] looked me in the eye and he said, ‘I came here, you were closed, I put it under your door, so it must have blown away in the wind’.
“And then I questioned him, ‘Well, what about Liquorland Leith?’
“[He said] ‘Yes, I went in there, I gave it to a young guy and he probably threw it in the rubbish’.”
They had since been given the chance to submit on changes to parking in the street, but not on the project as a whole, she said.
She wanted the council to acknowledge the consultation was flawed and apologise to businesses and landlords.
Others businesses spoken to yesterday had similar views.
Sushi Station manager Jason Kim said any changes to nearby parking without their knowledge would affect the business.
It would have been nice to have known earlier, he said.
“It’s a bit of negligence on their part.”
Formosa Delight owner Selina Ling said she knew nothing about the cycleway project until Mr Paterson told her ahead of the meeting at Eureka.
“I was quite angry, to be honest. I said, ‘what’s going on?’
“At first I didn’t even know what they were talking about… no-one told us anything about it.”
Deputy mayor Cherry Lucas this week said the hearings committee that heard from submitters on the project had been reassured by staff that all businesses and property owners affected had been approached.
Asked yesterday about businesses’ ongoing concerns around the consultation on the project, the council’s climate and city growth general manager Scott MacLean said it had previously carried out various letter drops and corresponded with a variety of stakeholders in the area, including the University of Otago, Otago Polytechnic, landlords and business owners.
Businesses in the area had asked the council to consider changes including reinstating four parking spaces planned for removal.
It was now proposing to reinstate nine.
The council’s contact more recently had been primarily with landlords in the area, to try to address concerns raised by tenants during earlier consultation, but the council had planned to contact the business owners again “about now”, Mr MacLean said.
“However, the decision to re-consult on the parking changes, based on legal feedback, means this was not considered necessary at this stage.
” … we encourage all affected businesses to share their views too.”
The project aimed to deliver safety improvements for thousands of students who crossed Albany St each day, as well as other pedestrians, cyclists and scooter riders negotiating the area, he said.
“It’s important we get this right, which is why we’re consulting again, and we look forward to hearing the community’s feedback.”
Mr MacLean did not respond to questions about whether the council had any regrets or would apologise to businesses for the consultation process to date.
tim.scott@odt.co.nz
