Croydon Main Street: Traders’ anger over planned Valentine’s Day power outage

A energy supplier is set to break the hearts of Croydon traders by cutting the power on Valentine’s Day, just as they try to recover from Covid.

A power supplier is showing no love to a group of Croydon traders on the most romantic day of the year, in a move that is set to cost them thousands of dollars.

AusNet will cut electricity to 105 homes and businesses along Hewish Rd from 8am to 4pm on Monday to repair a power pole in the area.

The move has outraged traders who are set to miss out on thousands of dollars in potential earnings from Valentine’s Day and the US Superbowl.

Croydon Main Street Traders Association spokeswoman Samantha Bartlett said more than 70 traders in its precinct would be impacted, including cafes and restaurants, the Croydon cinemas, a chemist, hairdressers and clothing shops.

She said many traders were “devastated” by the plans, and it would be the second year in a row they couldn’t open on Valentine’s Day.

“They (AusNet) should really be looking at the calendar and thinking, small businesses have already done it tough, let’s not do these works then,” she said.

The power supplier sent out notices about the planned works on February 1, which it stated was to conduct “essential maintenance”.

Ora D’Oro restaurant owner Raj Idema said he would have to spend $4000 to hire a generator to keep his food fresh.

“It’s a big loss, already we’re facing a lot of problems because the (Covid) cases have spiked up and not a lot of people are coming out … and I’ve had to start cancelling bookings,” he said.

Mr T’s Burgers and Fried Chicken owner Dean Travers said the planned outage was set to cost him a $1000 catering job for a local Superbowl party.

“It’s a real kick in the teeth”, Mr Travers said of the planned outage.

“We’ve gone through such a s**t time (with Covid), January was the worst month yet for me with no one dining out, and now we’re trying to make money how ever we can.”

Discount Chemist Croydon manager Mark Pullyblank said he would have to cancel more than 20 Covid-19 vaccinations, and miss out on up to $30,000 in sales.

Happy Days Donuts owner Marcus Sampson said he would have to close his shop and focus on home deliveries instead.

He claimed he approached AusNet asking for compensation over the closure and food preparation, but was told it was “his problem”.

“I wrote them a pretty interesting letter and spoke to them too, and I think it just falls on deaf ears,” he said.

“This could have been planned better, I don’t think they (AusNet) looked at the date and thought, that could be something that could affect 30-odd cafes in Main St,” Mr Sampson said.

An AusNet spokeswoman said the provider had to carry out the works “to maintain a safe and reliable network” and apologised to traders for the inconvenience.

“We understand there is never a good time to be without power … we plan works as much as possible to minimise disruption to the community,” the spokeswoman said.

“We will do everything we can to get the job done as quickly and safely as possible.”