Roofless: Dispute sees Eat Streat awnings locked

Eat Streat restaurateurs Niyazi Gunaydin, left, and John Knight say all businesses on Eat Streat will suffer due to a contractual dispute. Photo / Ben Fraser

Eat Streat businesses have become the meat in the sandwich of a contractual dispute which has led to the controls for their new retractable awnings being confiscated.

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

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

It appears 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 he was told it would take at least five days to get his remote control back - if the outstanding amount was paid immediately - and a lot longer if the problem dragged on.

"To have the remotes suddenly taken away from us for something totally out of our control is just crazy.

"We don't dispute someone is owed money but this is the wrong way to go about it.

"We are going to lose business with the school holidays coming next week and a big conference coming to town."

Mr Knight said he was going to launch a civil claim against GS World for breach of contract.

Cafe Ephesus owner Niyazi Gunaydin said a GS World representative took his remote control.

"He said they were making final changes and I would get it back soon.

"Now I don't know when I will get it back and it will start raining again on the weekend.

"Where will my customers sit when inside is full?" he asked.

Watts & Hughes commercial manager Dennis Cresswell said the company was "not impressed with the strong-arm approach from the Australian supplier".

He said they withheld payment to GS World due to an issue with the awnings, but this had been rectified this week to an acceptable standard "and the money held will be released for payment on Friday, September 26, as agreed with GS World on September 18," Mr Cresswell said.

"We sympathise with the business owners and at this stage the weather has been fine and to our knowledge there has been no disruption," he said.

But GS World executive director Patrick Choi said the company finished the job on August 2 and was told it would be receiving progress payments from Watts & Hughes during the building process.

"Yes, there were some disruptions due to the design of the hoods. Out of goodwill, we went back and replaced those hoods, but it has been almost two months and we have seen no payments."

Mr Choi said he felt sorry for Eat Streat businesses but they had to take "drastic measures" to force Watts & Hughes to pay.

"Payments have not been paid and promises not kept," he said.

The council's performance and delivery group acting chief operating officer, Henry Weston, said Watts & Hughes was asked to address the matter urgently but the council would "try to facilitate the resolution of the dispute".

"These discussions are ongoing and we hope it will be resolved in the next few days," Mr Weston said.