Auckland businesses continue fight for compensation over City Rail Link construction works

Tuesday, 25 June 2019

City Rail Link construction is affecting businesses on central Auckland's Albert St (video first published April 2019).

Small businesses struggling alongside the country's biggest transport construction project will continue their fight for financial help after being rebuffed.

The businesses along Auckland's Albert St are suffering and some have closed as tunnelling work for the City Rail Link runs a year longer than planned.

CRLL, the Auckland Council-government joint venture which is building the $4.4 billion underground rail line, has said compensation is not its business, and both Auckland Mayor Phil Goff and Transport Minister Phil Twyford have said no.

The lower section of Auckland's Albert Street won't be restored until the end of 2020 following upgrading

Sunny Kaushal, who owns the Shakespeare Tavern next to the works, said they would meet again shortly to consider what to do next.

**READ MORE:

Some businesses along Albert St have closed due to the construction works.

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Construction along Auckland's Albert St has lasted a year longer than planned.

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* Struggle street: $3.4b City Rail Link refuses Auckland businesses' cries for help**

The businesses have the backing of Auckland Central MP Nikki Kaye and the downtown promotion agency Heart of the City in their bid for financial support from the council.

'They are going to have to deal with it, so it'd be better for the mayor and minister to get officials around the table,' Kaye said.

'There has been extreme hardship because of delays to the project.'

Business owners, some of whom have unsuccessfully tried to sell up, are blaming the elongated CRL works for losses.

However, CRLL's chief executive Sean Sweeney said the question of compensation was one for the government and Auckland Council.

'There's a circular thing going on with CRL saying we have no remit, talk to Auckland Council and the Government, who say talk to CRL,' Heart of the City chief executive Viv Beck said.

Beck said she wrote to Goff and Twyford a fortnight ago, but neither had replied.

'We understand concern about setting precedents but it doesn't need to be an open cheque book.'

The project has dug a deep trench up a lower stretch of Albert St, reducing traffic to a single lane. The road won't be restored until next year.

Kaye has met the group of businesses twice and has released a letter from CRLL outlining the assistance it said it had provided.

The project company told Kaye it had spent $72,000 on trying to improve the lot of businesses along the route.

The list of measures included social media training and free membership of the Chamber of Commerce.

Kaushal said the list was a mix of things he was unaware of, or were of little value, and the chamber memberships were not the work of CRLL.

'This has been offered from the Chamber of Commerce to CRL, it's at no cost to CRL, but it's actually of no help to anybody.'

Kaye also released a 2017 detailed plan drawn up for the CRL project on how to manage and lessen the impacts of the work on businesses.

The plan made clear that financial help would not be on offer.

Kaushal, Kaye and Beck all said they would continue the push for financial compensation.

CRLL said the tunnel-related construction would wind down over the next months on the section of Albert St north of Wyndham St.

Sixteen months would then be spent building a revamped streetscape on Albert St on behalf of the council.

A start would be made in the new year on the major tunnelling work north of Wyndham St, with the underground rail link due to open in 2024.