Virus fears and road closures affecting business

FIRST it was the closure of one lane of traffic that impacted the row of shops on the corner of Glenvale Rd and Greenwattle St. Then came people’s fear of COVID-19.

FIRST it was the closure of one lane of traffic that impacted the row of shops on the corner of Glenvale Rd and Greenwattle St.

Then came people's fear of COVID-19.

For Adam and Miharu Sack, the owners of family-owned business Glenvale Convenience Plus, the combination of the two issues are costing them customers and dollars.

Mr Sack estimates the closure of one lane of Glenvale Rd while a new shopping centre is being built is costing his business between $1000 and $1500 a day.

After closing in early January, the road was expected to be reopened by the start of February.

But it hasn't, and Mr Sack said the impact of COVID-19 was only just beginning.

"It's going to become a big problem. It's a number of things. People just don't have the finances at the moment," he said.

"We've got tradies coming in saying that they can't even get steel and supplies so they're being laid off. It's a real flow-on effect for everybody."

Mr Sack said all levels of government needed to step in and do more.

He said the Federal Government needed to help businesses keep people employed.

"A lot of staff, (if businesses don't get help) are going to be put on unemployment," he said.

"So instead of all these people going on unemployment, the government should step in and help the businesses to keep these people employed because if this goes away in the next 12 months, what happens after all these people are on employment benefits?

"The money's got to go somewhere."

Mr Sack said that over the next six months, "everybody was at risk of closing down".

"We are at risk. They're going to lose a lot of small businesses around Toowoomba and the local area."

Mr Sack said he hoped Toowoomba Regional Council would not also close Greenwattle St - something he'd heard may happen.

Toowoomba Regional Council infrastructure services group general manager Mike Brady said the council had been disappointed with the developer's "failure to complete the (road) works within the timeline originally indicated".

"While the works were effectively completed earlier in the week, the applicant's engineers have not given confirmation that the road is safe to reopen," Mr Brady said.

"Council will continue to work with the applicant to have the road opened as soon as possible."

Toowoomba South MP David Janetzki said "now is not the time for more road blocks".

"We need to be able to get traffic in here and out of here so these local businesses can have a fair shot," he said.

Mr Janetzki said the coronavirus issue was a really serious public health matter, as well as a serious economic matter. We need locals supporting these small businesses and most importantly we need every level of government moving heaven and earth to give all the support they can, to make sure we keep people in jobs."