North Hobart businesses holding out hope for increase in foot traffic
Businesses in North Hobart are hoping for a turn around in foot traffic in the precinct after council announced they would temporarily suspend parking meters. LATEST >>
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Business owners in North Hobart are hoping foot traffic picks up in the district, after the Hobart council voted to hood parking meters and launch a new campaign to increase visitation to the area.
The decision came after a decline in business which some in the area blamed on the introduction of new parking meters along Elizabeth Street.
Owner of North Hobart restaurant Culinary King, Amandeep Handa said business had slowed down at his restaurant.
“There was not much parking in North Hobart, it’s half an hour parking,” Mr Handa said.
“If someone who comes for a few minutes to collect takeaway they can get a parking ticket.
“No tourists coming, that’s also another reason.”
Mr Handa said it’d been tough on the business’ bottom line.
“I’ve lost around 3000-4000 a month, twenty or thirty per cent of business,” he said.
Mr Handa said he’d considered leaving the North Hobart strip.
“If things stay like this I’ll go somewhere else,” Mr Handa said.
“We could go to Kingston or Margate or Blackmans Bay.
“There are high running costs in North Hobart, too many expenses and not enough income to pay the bills.”
After the council voted to hood the meters on Monday, Mr Handa said he’d reconsider moving if business picked up.
“I might stay, depends on tourism,” he said.
“When there was not many cars were stopping in North Hobart, but now it’s changed I think”
Owner of Frangipani Fabrics Ann Alderslade said she’d also experienced a downfall in trade.
“It doesn’t take much to tip the balance for people coming into your business or going somewhere else,” Ms Alderslade said.
“Half an hour parking is one of those that will tip the balance.
“We’re not talking about businesses, we’re talking about families who are trying to earn a living,” she said.
“Some businesses have completely lost their customers, they can’t pay their mortgages.”
Ms Alderslade agreed there were other factors.
“We can’t say it’s just parking, a lot of it’s to do with Covid,” she said.
“For my business, we would have had a lot of tourist through because tourists go looking for my kind of shop.”
Ms Alderslade hoped the council’s plan to revitalise the area would make a difference.
“We really appreciate the fact they are listening to us, it’s certainly a start,” she said.
“I really do think they realise there is something valuable at stake here.”
Ms Alderslade said she hoped local businesses would be involved in discussions.
“We need something to give it life, what I think is missing is the heart and soul,” Ms Alderslade said.
“I do think North Hobart is a special place and if we can get it right, it will be a real asset to Hobart.”
‘We wasted four weeks’: councillor urged to apologise over NoHo parking meters
The Hobart council CEO’s plan to hood parking meters has been met with mixed reactions, with many happy to see the meters suspended, but others saying the decision should have been made sooner.
North Hobart Traders Association vice president John Kelly said the council suspending the meters as part of eight recommendations to revitalise North Hobart was a positive step.
“We congratulate the CEO on a commonsense report,” Mr Kelly said.
“This is a big step forward and it’s going to give some confidence back to the traders.”
But Mr Kelly said the precinct had suffered since parking meters were installed earlier this year.
A petition was launched urging the council to remove the meters, resulting in a motion put to council that they should be suspended.
That motion was defeated and the council chose to wait for a report by Hobart council CEO Kelly Grigsby before taking further action.
On Monday it was revealed the report recommended they be hooded.
“Once again it’s taking far too long,” Mr Kelly said.
“The whole thing could have been avoided if proper consultations had been done.”
“There’s big mistakes made here and we really hope the council will learn from this.”
Alderman Marti Zucco who moved for the meters to be suspended said the council should admit it was wrong.
“We wasted four weeks,” Ald Zucco said.
“Six weeks ago, the traders put up a petition but that was after contacting the council on numerous occasions with no action.
“There’s nothing wrong in saying we got it wrong.”
Ald Zucco said business owners could have been spared further financial pain.
“Giving the delegated authority to the general manager four weeks ago would have resulted in the same thing happening,” he said.
“The general manager could have hooded these four weeks ago.
Ald Zucco said councillors needed to take responsibility.
“I call on all elected members who failed to support my motion four weeks ago to apologise to the traders for failing them in the last four weeks,” he said.
Deputy Mayor Helen Burnet said it was a positive outcome.
“I think it was a really good outcome last night, the decision probably wasn’t an easy one in many ways but the response was quite a swift response,” Cr Burnet said.
Cr Burnet said the report addressed more issues than parking.
“I know there are businesses who are doing it tough and felt the parking arrangements were not the best thing,” Cr Burnet said.
“The response is a nuanced response, we’ve got more of a feel of what some of the problems are.”
“It’s about an overall improvement to North Hobart, putting some spit and polish on North Hobart, making sure everything’s as clean as possible and looking at off-street parking options available as well.”
North Hobart parking meters suspended
Parking meters in North Hobart will be temporarily suspended, as part of eight recommendations from the Hobart council CEO Kelly Grigsby to revitalise the area.
The report prepared by Ms Grigsby comes after a petition calling on the council to remove the parking meters installed on Elizabeth Street in North Hobart and adjoining streets attracted 1,205 signatures.
Recommendation three of the report was to “hood” parking meters in Elizabeth St, between Burnett and Federal Streets until other supports to enhance the precincts was achieved.
“The intention here is to resolve a number of issues through initially looking at a temporary hold on parking meters in the High St strip in North Hobart,” Ms Grigsby said.
“This report seeks to look at a range of issues associated with North Hobart.
“We recognise that an element of this report responds specifically to the issue of parking and certainly the issue raised via the petition.”
Ms Grigsby also recommended a precinct plan be developed for North Hobart, that options for more off street parking be investigated and that a marketing plan be implemented to draw more visitors to the area.
Alderman Marti Zucco, who last month moved a motion for parking meters to be suspended in response to concerns urged councillors to support the report.
“I believe it is a very good report,” Ald Zucco said.
Councillor Helen Burnett said the recommendations would address a number of issues.
“We’re in the middle of a pandemic so we know there are many reasons we’ve had some slowing in trade, it’s to be expected at this time,” Cr Burnett said.
“This report goes a long way to addressing some of the problems not only the shop owners have but also the residents.
“This is a prioritisation for North Hobart which is hasn’t seen for quite some time.”
Councillor Will Coats said hooding the meters did not go far enough.
“An action was taken, the community had a detrimental impact and we received a petition, it called for the removal,” Mr Coats said.
“These are people who’ve had the rug pulled under them, their businesses severely impacted.
“I appreciate hooding it buys us time but in my view that petition called on us to take very strong action and this unfortunately wasn’t it.”
The recommendations were carried unanimously.
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