Latest / Best of Business / Mahe Drysdale: Tauranga mayor reveals city will wait to introduce outdoor dining charges

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Mahe Drysdale: Tauranga mayor reveals city will wait to introduce outdoor dining charges · Best of Business

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  Speaker 2: Now to the drama about the Elfresco dining you'll have
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  Speaker 2: caught up on this happening in Totanger. Also happening in
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  Speaker 2: Queenstown in Totinger. The plan is to charge businesses that
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  Speaker 2: use street space for dining up to one hundred and
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  Speaker 2: fifty dollars a year per square meter that they use.
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  Speaker 2: Local businesses are not happy with this, so the council
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  Speaker 2: has now made a decision to give all businesses a
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  Speaker 2: one hundred percent discount on those fees until mid next year.
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  Speaker 2: Mahir Drysdale is the mayor of totingng ho Aham Good
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  Speaker 2: Afternoon is giving them a discount of like a complete
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  Speaker 2: one hundred percent discount, not an admission that you guys
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  Speaker 2: charging them this much is a bit of a punish.
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  Speaker 3: No, I think it's it's a couple of reasons. So
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  Speaker 3: these these fees came in on the first of July,
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  Speaker 3: obviously before we were elected. We understand how tough it
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  Speaker 3: is in the environment out there right now, you know
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  Speaker 3: in the CBD where we're trying to make it more vibrant,
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  Speaker 3: you know, which has meant a lot of our hospitality
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  Speaker 3: businesses have had to suffer through you know, construction works
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  Speaker 3: all around them, and so you know, we want to
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  Speaker 3: try to give them a little bit of a hand up.
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  Speaker 3: You know, we do want to put these these agreements
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  Speaker 3: in place, but we're saying is we're not going to
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  Speaker 3: charge you and until at least mid next year, and
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  Speaker 3: that will give us an opportunity to get out understand
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  Speaker 3: you know what the charges should be and have them
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  Speaker 3: consult on on those charges.
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  Speaker 2: So that does that That sounds to me like you
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  Speaker 2: were prepared to have another look at it and maybe
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  Speaker 2: bring those charges down.
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  Speaker 1: Is that right?
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  Speaker 4: Oh? Absolutely, we we haven't set these charges.
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  Speaker 3: You know, this was inherited by us, so yeah, we'll
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  Speaker 3: absolutely you have a look obviously, you know, we we
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  Speaker 3: want these businesses to be around because that drives the
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  Speaker 3: vibrancy of our city. So you know, we we want
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  Speaker 3: to work with for sector and make sure that that
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  Speaker 3: you know, we're getting a return for for them using
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  Speaker 3: our space. We're also supporting them and that's that's very much.
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  Speaker 3: You know, what our council wants to be is transparent
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  Speaker 3: in the County, Maha.
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  Speaker 2: What does he gut tell you that it's maybe a
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  Speaker 2: little bit high, because one hundred and fifty dollars per
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  Speaker 2: square meter per year is what Auckland charge, is it like,
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  Speaker 2: that's its highest charge in Auckland is many times bigger
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  Speaker 2: than total.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, look, I don't know, to be honest, and you
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  Speaker 3: know that's that's a conversation we need to have for
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  Speaker 3: the people that are on the ground and using the space.
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  Speaker 3: But you know, we've had a very complicated system in
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  Speaker 3: place around you know, what what the sort of you know,
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  Speaker 3: how how good the street is and and all that
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  Speaker 3: sort of stuff. So what we've tried to do is
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  Speaker 3: simplify that have a couple of different charges. But you know,
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  Speaker 3: we're absolutely looking prepared to look at that. And you know,
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  Speaker 3: at the moment, we're only being charging the CBD nowhere
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  Speaker 3: else and we're sort of bringing these charges in across
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  Speaker 3: the city. So you know, that's that's something that that
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  Speaker 3: we want to sort of consult on understand should it
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  Speaker 3: be the same everywhere? And you know, what should those
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  Speaker 3: charges be? And that's what we'll do over over the
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  Speaker 3: next nine month.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, please, I'm sure people will be pleased here, listen
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  Speaker 2: to something else. I saw that you voted against adding
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  Speaker 2: fluoride to the water because you're not sure it's safe.
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  Speaker 1: What are you worried about.
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  Speaker 3: I think there's a there's a lot of studies and
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  Speaker 3: obviously a court case and in a in a in
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  Speaker 3: America that's just come out saying there's a unreasonable risk to.
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  Speaker 4: To you know, in safety risks.
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  Speaker 3: So all I all I really want to do is
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  Speaker 3: I want to hear it from the d G that
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  Speaker 3: she's happy that those you know, all those studies are
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  Speaker 3: you know, aren't aren't valid and and she's still very comfortable,
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  Speaker 3: but it's it's safe for our people.
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  Speaker 4: And that's that's really you know.
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  Speaker 2: Because the last DG do the last d G, Ashley Bloom,
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  Speaker 2: will decide that that it was compulsory, it was going
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  Speaker 2: to be added to water and stuff. So is his
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  Speaker 2: his take on it not sufficient?
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  Speaker 3: I think there's just been further information since those decisions
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  Speaker 3: were made, and I think I think, you know, those
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  Speaker 3: those decisions should be be looked at with the research
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  Speaker 3: and you know, if they come back to us and say, yeah,
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  Speaker 3: it's absolutely safe, then you know, I'm very comfortable adding
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  Speaker 3: it to the water. But they're also under a court case,
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  Speaker 3: you know, against the Bill of Rights, and you know
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  Speaker 3: that's that's something that they also need to consider whether
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  Speaker 3: it's an impungement on our Bill of rights. And you know,
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  Speaker 3: once I've done that, you know we'll we'll go along
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  Speaker 3: with with what the Director General of Health says.
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  Speaker 2: All Right, my heir, thank you very much. I really
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  Speaker 2: appreciate you time.
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  Speaker 1: Mate.
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  Speaker 2: This is my head Drysdale, Mayor of Turning. I imagine
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  Speaker 2: quite a few business will be pleased to hear that
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  Speaker 2: they're going to have a look at that.
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