Business owners say the council’s attempt to “revitalise” Bridge St is worthy, they just hope they’ll be consulted with before another $200,000 is spent.
This month, Nelson City Council finished its Bridge St project which cost $172,500 plus GST, slightly less than its $200,000 budget. For their money, ratepayers got new lighting, planter boxes, seating and blue lines painted on the footpath outside the city’s nightclubs.
During this year’s annual plan discussions, the council agreed to put aside $200,000 for stage 2 of the project.
The blue lines have been the subject of much debate since they were painted on and Shark Club owner Steve Shepperd says he doesn’t see the point of them, but he’s happy with the rest of the upgrades. “The council started off consulting really well with us, but that bears no resemblance to what we ended up with. I’m trying to be positive but I don’t know what they were trying to do with the blue lines.”
He says none of the business owners on the street that he’s spoken to knew anything about the blue lines until they were being painted on.
Steve says he’s happy more money has been put aside but he’d like to hear more from the council before work begins.
Decisions around stage 2 of the Bridge St Upgrade is still a while away, as councillors haven’t even began discussing them yet.
