Auckland City Rail Link: Albert St owners threatened by works rip social media training offer

Wednesday, 31 July 2019

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

Shobhana Ranchhodji says her livelihood is under threat from the City Rail Link, New Zealand's most expensive transport project, and she expected more in the way of help than a social media training session.

The 'how-to' Facebook session ran for about an hour, she recalls - any longer and the Roma Blooms owner was told she would have to pay up.

City Rail Link Ltd is defending its offer, calling social media an 'effective tool' to help struggling owners promote their businesses.

Roma Blooms owners Shobhana Ranchhodji and Jugdish Naran. Ranchhodji says CRLL has not given 'diddly-squat' to help Albert St business owners.

Albert St business owners are locked in a lengthy fight for financial compensation to recoup losses they blame on disruptive, and delayed, City Rail Link works.

**READ MORE:

CRLL chief executive Sean Sweeney has again defended his company's treatment of struggling Albert St business owners.

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* Auckland councillors OK passing extra $500 million CRL cost to ratepayers

* Cancer-stricken CRL neighbour struggling to sell for third of purchase price

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

Some aggrieved owners Stuff has spoken to want out of the street, while others are gritting their teeth, despite claiming their losses are in the millions.

Ranchhodji did not give specifics of her company's financial position, but said CRLL was failing to give 'diddly-squat' to help business owners.

'We needed help and they said to us that you are going to help yourself through social media,' Ranchhodji said.

The training session showed Roma Blooms how to use Facebook to generate business. It was short, running for roughly an hour, and Ranchhodji questioned its worth.

'At the end of the day can they tell me if I do this I'm going to get … money coming in?'

But CRLL chief executive Sean Sweeney on Wednesday defended the training. It was free, he said, and provided by 'a recognised expert in the field'.

The session was worthwhile, given the 'influential role' of social media as a tool for businesses to reach audiences and promote themselves, Sweeney added.

CRLL had a number of assistance programmes available to businesses.

Sweeney said the company, which is jointly owned by Auckland Council and the Government, offered a free business support package.

This included 12 months with a mentor from Business Mentors NZ, a year-long membership with the Auckland Business Chamber and social media training.

Street cleaning, business advertising and events such as a Cheap Eats campaign, Wednesdays on Wellesley and Eat Albert were among the other initiatives on offer, while an Albert St business directory was also being created.

Sweeney said CRLL would work 'to identify new opportunities' for business, while refining 'existing ones', as Albert St works continue until the end of 2020.

Ranchhodji, meanwhile, said she was sick of hearing about CRL's future benefits.

'We have no idea what's going to happen with our business,' she said.

'There's so much uncertainty.'

On Tuesday, the Albert St owners' quest for compensation received a boost.

A hardship fund to help them out could be on the cards, if agreement can be reached between the council and the Government.

Auckland Mayor Phil Goff told Stuff he was proposing a targeted hardship fund to help small businesses that are facing 'exceptional' hardship because of the disruption.

Goff said he spoke to Transport Minister Phil Twyford on July 19 and told him that he believed his proposal had merit.