The Tribune

• Auto dealer ‘catching hell’ with 30-40% sales plunge

• Says hoped-for sewerage hook-up yet to happen

• Bran: Year-end completion target ‘seems ambitious’

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

Businesses at Village Road’s northern end yesterday said they are “hoping and praying Santa can deliver” an end to their frustration by New Year with ongoing roadworks having caused sales to plunge by 30-40 percent.

Brent Fox, Montague Motors’ principal, told Tribune Business he was still “catching hell” given that his auto dealership remains frequently cut-off from consumer access via the Shirley Street junction due to the continued road improvement project.

Estimating that his sales would be up 20-30 percent compared to 2021 without the inconvenience, he added that it was extremely difficult to give a figure for his losses given that the prior year’s performance would have been below average as the economy was still grappling with COVID-relates restrictions.

Mr Fox’s northern neighbour, Branville McCartney, the former Democratic National Alliance (DNA) leader who heads the Halsbury Chambers law firm, told this newspaper yesterday that the Government’s stated objective of completing the $4.6m Village Road improvements by year-end 2022 “seems ambitious” given the current state of work.

Alfred Sears, minister of works and utilities, yesterday told reporters ahead of the weekly Cabinet meeting that the three-phase road paving will likely last through December but should be “substantially” complete before the start of 2023. 

“The work is progressing. The Water and Sewerage Corporation has had to do some additional work in terms of the water mains, and I had a meeting with Water and Sewerage, BPL and BTC, with the Ministry of Works and also with the contractor and they have a co-ordinated strategy,” he added.

Mr McCartney, who earlier this year revealed that his law firm lost around $100,000 in client billings and IT equipment after its servers, computers and Internet were “fried” amid the ongoing roadworks, yesterday said the road closures and diversions had been extremely inconvenient for clients who had to visit Halsbury Chambers to sign legal documents and for meetings.

The law firm’s staff had also complained about damage to their vehicles from passing through pot-holed, unpaved streets, and the ex-DNA leader added that it was “of the utmost importance” that any roadworks project be completed on time to minimise the fall-out for affected residents as well as the financial impact for businesses.

“We are looking forward to a brand new Village Road, and we are hoping and praying that Santa can deliver on that gift in early 2023,” Mr McCartney told Tribune Business. “It’s been like this for almost a year. It’s a great inconvenience and has been a trying period. They indicated recently that the roadworks should be completed by next month. That seems to be ambitious looking at the state of things, but that’s my hope as we go into the New Year.”

Mr Fox, though, has likely suffered an even greater impact. He revealed that the Water & Sewerage Corporation has not used the roadworks to address the ten-year sewer problem impacting both his business and some 10-15 apartments located behind it, as his connection is still not properly hooked up to the state-owned utility’s main line.

“I’m catching hell,” he told Tribune Business. “The only thing I got from Water & Sewerage was an old bill, and they asked me how I’m going to pay for it? I told them I need some compensation. I knew as soon as I said that they would come at me another way. They did run a sewer line to my wall, but didn’t connect it with my sewer line, and they didn’t run a water line. Still no change here. Same old, same old.”

Mr Fox had previously told this newspaper that his sewer connection to the Water & Sewerage Corporation’s main pipe is the lowest-lying one in the Village Road area. Due to the “degradation” associated with the previous infrastructure, during period of heavy rain or frequent use by other businesses in the area, his pipe “becomes half full” and starts to back-up.

As a result, to cure the problem he was forced to install a 100-gallon lift station at his own expense to ensure the waste form his pipe could be pumped into the Water & Sewerage Corporation’s main line. Hopeful that the installation of new sewage infrastructure would provide a permanent solution, Mr Fox said his hopes have been dashed because the new main line has been installed at a depth eight to 12 inches (around a foot) higher than his connecting pipe.

Asserting that the main sewerage line should have been laid at the same depth as the lowest line, which is his, Mr Fox said the Water & Sewerage Corporation had instead simply run a sewer line to his property’s wall and stopped it there “turned up vertical”.

While he already has well water, the Montague Motors principal said: “They didn’t actually make the connection. As soon as I dig down on my side, I will have to dig up my pipe and re-run it all the way back to connect. That’s major work. I will have to bring in a back hoe and dig down 12 feet to elevate my pipe to connect with Water & Sewerage.”

He added that the apartments behind Montague Motors had been told to seek Morley Realty’s permission to run a line through the latter’s property so that it can connect with the Water & Sewerage Corporation’s main pipe on Shirley Street rather than Village Road.

As for auto sales, Mr Fox said: “Business is way down. I don’t know whether to laugh or cry. It’s a mess but, in any event, they said they would start paving from December 1. This week I’m going to start going to see the Ministry of Finance to see if they will give me some compensation on the VAT, but a reliable source said to me I’m unlikely to see anything.

“It is what it is. No one can get to me. It hasn’t got any better since you and I last spoke in October. They asked me: Can you put a figure on how much you have lost? It’s hard to say, as last year we were recovering from COVID so sales were still down. I can’t tell you accurately what the last three months have cost me, but it’s a significant amount of money.”

Mr Fox, estimating that sales were down at least 30-40 percent due to the roadworks, added: “I can’t give them a definitive figure; whether it’s $38,000 or $100,000. If I give them figures from last year, my sales were starting to increase by 5 percent to 10 percent every month but, after COVID, that figure doesn’t accurately paint a picture of what’s going as I know my sales would otherwise be up 20-30 percent from last year.

“I haven’t given up, but don’t see I have much recourse on this. Whether I go to the minister [Alfred Sears] or not, I don’t know. I was going to write to him to say the least you could do is hook up my water line.” The Government, in the aftermath of the New Providence Road Improvement project one decade ago, did provide tax and other forms of relief to impacted businesses given the outcry and number that were affected.

Mr McCartney, meanwhile, argued that roadworks projects need to be managed and handled better. “I certainly understand the need for road improvements and what have you, but I do think in terms of giving the necessary notices to residents and persons using the street as to when there will be diversions, I think that can be handled much better. It causes great frustration.

“And having them done in a timely manner is of the utmost importance. It has been going on for one year. It’s not a highway. It’s one street. I can only assume they have all sorts of other infrastructure that they have to deal with, water and electricity, but 12 months is really pushing it and frustrating to no end.” Besides dealing with the utilities’ pipes and underground cables, the project’s scope of works has also changed several times.