Awning dispute threatens business

FILE

It could be a wet weekend for staff and patrons on Eat Streat as a contractual dispute which saw the dining street's retractable awnings decommissioned remains unresolved.

But an alternative solution is being looked at and the awnings could be back in action by this afternoon.

On Wednesday, a representative of Australian company GS World, which built and installed the 12 awnings on Eat Streat, took the remote controls from staff, retracted the awnings and left.

Those businesses with an awning are now unable to use them and, with the weather set to turn ugly again tomorrow, they are worried they will lose business.

The issue is a contractual dispute between the contractor appointed by the Rotorua District Council for the Eat Streat job - Watts & Hughes Construction - and Sydney-based GS World, who told the Rotorua Daily Post they had not been paid for their work and took "drastic measures" to try and resolve the issue.

CBK general manager John Knight said as at 5pm yesterday the issues had not been resolved.

"None of us have our [awning] controls back, it will be a wet, sad weekend for us," he said.

GS World executive director Patrick Choi said his company had still not been paid. "Because we haven't been paid in full we can't activate the systems."

Watts & Hughes commercial manager Dennis Cresswell said his company could not leave businesses on Eat Streat without a working awning system and had brought in an electrician to try and reactivate the awnings.

"If not today [Friday], it should be sorted by Saturday," he said.