Southern View: July 05, 2016

SOUTHERN VIEW Tuesday July 5 2016 3
News
Waste charges hit businesses
• By Tom Doudney
INDUSTRIAL businesses in
Woolston say “unsustainable”
increases in trade waste charges
are threatening their viability.
Some are also frustrated by
the presence of shopping arcade
The Tannery in what they see as
an industrial area.
GL Bowron & Co Ltd business
manager Neil Shewan said
the trade waste charges had increased
dramatically in recent
years, with his company now
paying about $500,000 a year.
“Already, from 2010 until
now, the cost has got up 57
per cent, and they are wanting
another nine per cent now and
then they are wanting to push it
up further. This is just becoming
completely unsustainable
for us.”
Mr Shewan said the need to
provide infrastructure to service
businesses in newly developed
areas was a big reason for
the increase in costs, and those
businesses should therefore pay
a higher proportion.
“We are not the guys who
are putting subdivisions out in
Halswell and Prebbleton and
Pegasus and all those places
and we don’t see why we should
be paying those costs for them.”
A city council spokeswoman
said staff were liaising with the
New Zealand Manufacturers
and Exporters Union to review
the trade waste charging model.
Mr Shewan said the The Tannery’s
presence had also created
new pressures on Woolston
businesses by increasing the
public’s sensitivity to industrial
processes and bringing more
people and traffic into the area.
“The principle of allowing
retail in the middle of an industrial
area and therefore reducing
the usability of the industrial
area, that’s the thing I don’t like
at all,” Mr Shewan said.
Gelita New Zealand Ltd
general manager Gary Monk
agreed that trade waste charges
were unsustainable.
He also said the company
had had a lot more complaints
about odours coming from
its Connal St factory since the
Tannery set up nearby.
“We have actually gone
NOT HAPPY:
Neil Shewan,
business
manager of
GL Bowron &
Co Ltd, says
increases in
trade waste
charges are
unsustainable
for businesses.
PHOTO:
GEOFF SLOAN
through a major consent review
with ECan as a result of it,
which was a stressful, costly
affair,” Mr Monk said.
The Tannery developer Alasdair
Cassels said Gelita’s problems
were of its own making.
“They can’t really blame The
Tannery for their smell, that
doesn’t work.”
The Tannery was in a buffer
zone, adjacent to both industrial
and residential properties,
Mr Cassels said.
In Brief
TAGGING
Waltham was the most tagged
suburb in southern Christchurch
during the city council’s annual
graffiti scan, carried out over a week
in February. The suburb had 150
tags recorded. Of the other southern
suburbs scanned, Addington had 61,
Spreydon had 54, Beckenham had
51, Phillipstown had 43, Hillmorton
and Woolston west had 22 each,
Ferrymead had 20 and Halswell had
13.
NO STOPPING
No stopping restrictions may
be introduced to a Woolston
intersection after a truck driver
raised concerns about parked
vehicles making it challenging to
navigate. The Hagley-Ferrymead
Community Board will decide
at today’s meeting whether to
introduce the restrictions around the
intersection of Curries Rd, Tanner St
and Maunsell St.
GRANTS
The Spreydon-Heathcote
Community Board will today
consider grant requests of $19,180
from the Sydenham Community
Preschool for a language and literacy
initiative and $1500 from the Hoon
Hay Community Centre for start up
costs. Staff have recommended the
pre-school be granted $6000 and
that the community centre receives
the amount requested.
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