Today is Monday, October 30 and the waterfront car park in Tauranga CBD is closed. As part of the Plan to transform Tauranga City Centre, TCC has started the process of building a new Playground on the Waterfront of the city, but what are people thinking about this decision?

SunLive walks up and down asking people what they think about the plan to close the car park and make a green area and these were some of their answers.

“It is a good idea but is not the right timing,” says one person.

“The council and their magnificent Ideas, we have nothing to do, just wait,” says another.

“It does not bother me as long as we have another car park to replace the waterfront one.”

“I love to come to the waterfront to have a good lunch or walk with my kids, I will have to walk more to reach it but, I think it will be ok.”

Despite some people seemingly not affected by this decision, there is another reality on the other side of the coin.

That reality deeply affects all the business owners who, for years, have found the waterfront car park an ally to the success of their restaurants, cafes and bars.

This is how the upgrading of the Masonic car park is progressing.

“Most of the people who come to have lunch at Miss Gees leave their vehicles in that car park, now without a place to park, there will be no clients who come and visit our businesses. Despite the council having upgraded the Dive Cres car park, the clients won’t walk that long to eat,” says Miss Gee’s Bar and Eatery owner Ashleigh Gee.

According to Macau’s Owner Craig Cameron, the safety of the staff is one of his biggest concerns.

“I am not just thinking about what is best for my business, I am also thinking about the well-being of my staff.

“We have around 20 people working here and lots of them are ladies. So at the end of the night, there is no public transport and I don’t think is safe to walk from here to the new car park in Dive Cres.

“Besides, I think this measure did not take the elderly into consideration. Some of our clients come in wheelchairs or are accompanied by someone and this situation makes things more difficult for them.”

The Phoenix owner Ane-Marie Ward says she and her husband have suggested different options for a better approach to this process but they were never listened to by the council.

“We understand this decision was made for the best of our city but we feel the businesses owners' needs have not been listened and we are part of the city too, we don’t understand why the rush to start this work at the beginning the summer, the best time for people to come and enjoy Tauranga.  

“Closing the car park will not just affect the customers, we will lose part of our valuable staff due to this situation.”

All The business owners along the waterfront agree that they are not against the renovation and improvement of the city, but the timing is not the right one for two specific reasons.

-The first one is the city is chaos:  All the unfinished road works in the CBD make people not want to come over because the traffic is chaotic and with no car parks near the restaurants the time of their brakes reduces to nothing, which results in zero clients.

-The second one is, why during the summer: After a long winter, all the business owners were waiting for the customers who will come during the hot season to visit the city, to increase their sales and keep their business alive. With the car park closed, and all the road works, no want will come to the CBD even during the hot days.

One last meeting will be held on October 6 between the council and Main Street Tauranga chairwoman and Miss Gee's Bar and Eatery owner Ashleigh, to see if there is a lifeguard for the businesses during the summer ahead or if the car park will remain closed and they are definitely on their own.