Chamber Concerned with RMS Approach

THE Chamber of Commerce is concerned about the approach the Roads and Maritime Services has taken to surveying local businesses as part of their assessment for the bypass.

According to the Chamber president, Ben Wyndham, their approach is fundamentally flawed and they seem disinterested in getting a balanced result.

“There has been no consultation, they just told us, but they’ll call it consultation,” said Mr Wyndham.

“For a start they are doing the survey from Monday until Wednesday which is the quietest period for trade,” he said.

“But then the list of businesses to survey showed they had no idea, they’d included the Bottlemart at the Belmore which has been closed for more than three years and they included Farram’s, but not Marsh Carney.

“I don’t know of too many people that would stop to buy a pair of slacks when they drive through to Queensland, but there are definitely people who stop at the saddlery,” he said.

“We are concerned they don’t want too strong a result and to see how severely it will impact on passing trade,” Ben Wyndham said.

Mary Jane Garland from Celebrations estimates 25 to 40 percent of their business is from passing trade and agreed the days chosen by the RMS to conduct the survey were not a true reflection for a liquor business.

“It’s a little bit quieter Monday to Wednesday,” said Ms Garland.

“I’d worry if we were constantly busy on a Monday,” she laughed.

“I think closer to the weekends, Thursday, Friday, Saturday makes sense to me.

“Generally people are working during the week and travelling through on weekends using the highway and use Scone as a stopping off point,” she said.

Trish Carney, co-owner of Marsh Carney Saddlery said during an average week most of their trade is from travellers.

“We actually did a bit of a survey ourselves and we’d have more business from ‘other postcodes’ compared to 2337 postcodes,” said Ms Carney.

“Because it is a niche industry we have built a fairly good name, so we do draw from a lot of other areas and we have customers from Quirindi and Spring Ridge say they’d rather come to our Scone store than our Tamworth store and I get that comment all the time,” she said.

“Apparently the RMS has now booked in on Wednesday to come and have a chat to us,” Ms Carney said.

“I am pleased that they are coming, but do I think they are going to do anything? No,” she laughed.

“I hope they do, do something because it will definitely affect our business,” she said.

“That’s why we’ve got a big burgundy and white saddlery sign out the front, because anyone horsey as soon as they see a saddlery sign will stop,” she said.

“Things like country music week, I had people stopping off here to buy their boots and hats and jeans before they got into the hustle and bustle of Tamworth,” she said.

“Agquip we get a lot of passing trade from that, whether they are coming back from Agquip or going up to Angquip.

“I’d actually say we are busier in this store during AgQuip than in our Tamworth store,” she said.

“And with ALEC in Tamworth we do get a lot of people using our store in Scone on their way up there,” Trish Carney said.

Rachel McMahon owner of Kakao Dream a chocolate shop in Kelly Street also estimates half of her trade would be from travellers.

“I’ve been open a year now and a lot of Scone people are coming in and saying ‘oh I didn’t realise the chocolate shop was here’ because the nature of the local people shopping is that they go to the shops on their list and don’t really look around when they are down the street,” said Ms McMahon.

“We don’t have much signage up yet, but tourists tend to look more as they drive and happen to notice the shop is here,” she said.

“A lot of people tell me they are on their way north or south, but definitely about half and half of our trade is travellers,” said Rachel McMahon.

Ms McMahon also agreed Monday until Wednesday were typically her quietest days.

“I think for most businesses in town Monday until Wednesday are the quiet,” she said.

“As you can see outside at the moment, there is hardly anyone parked on either side of the street,” she said.

Ms McMahon said she was frustrated the RMS had not properly consulted with local businesses.

“They have gone off old information on businesses and that lack of interest is a concern because it shows they are not in touch with Scone and Scone’s needs,” she said.

“They say in appendix K that they are working with the chamber of commerce, but I’m not sure about their perception of ‘working with’ is,” she said.

“It would have been better to consult with us on when to do the survey and who to survey, to do that with the Chamber,” Rachel McMahon said.

Trish Carney raised concerns about where people with horse floats will be able to park.

“People with horses are not going to want to park and then walk miles, because you don’t want to leave your horse on the float for too long and that is one of the problems we have now,” she said.

“And there’s got to be better access into Scone, we drive a truck with horses and a goose neck with horses and to do a right hand turn into moving traffic can be an absolute night mare or even a left hand turn sometimes, because it’s not like you can pull out really fast,” she said.

“From our point of view we are looking at the horse population which is big around Scone and it has to be user friendly,” Trish Carney said.