NEWS
A number of inner-Valley traders have suffered huge pre-Christmas losses – and some face permanent closure – after an important pedestrian walkway was abruptly closed on Monday 12 December.
The usual daily passing parade of thousands of would-be customers from the Fortitude Valley Railway Station through Valley Metro and across the Wickham Street airbridge to McWhirters was reduced to just hundreds when the owners of the Walton’s 20-metre section of the passageway locked the fire doors at either end and erected barriers the previous night and announced via signage that it was “Closed for maintenance”.
As this special issue went to press, two weeks had passed, hundreds of thousands of dollars in trade has been lost exactly the time of year when they were counting on solid sales to make the most of what has been hard year for some of them – and perhaps the most galling aspect of the whole charade to those businesses, no work has been undertaken on the sealed walkway Among those to suffer are several businesses in the Happy Valley building that fronts Wickham Street, traders in McWhirters centre and even shops beyond.
Local long-term councillor David Hinchliffe warned early on that desperate traders were close to taking action into their own hands to save their businesses.
The Independent doesn’t claim to know the exact truth of this tragedy but understands the Walton’s owners - Mount Cathay Pty Ltd - closed the walkway after a deadline they had set passed for the owners of the adjoining Happy Valley building to fix problems with the Walton’s section of the walkway, including a number of broken and missing floor tiles. The Happy Valley body corporate is understood under a long-standing arrangement to be legally responsible for upkeep of the Walton’s section.
As this issue went to press the walkway remained closed and the chance to make solid sales in the final days before Xmas all but dashed.
A protest meeting on Thursday December 15, organised by Paul Crowther ALP candidate for Central Ward at the looming local elections created a fair amount of mainstream media coverage of the traders’ grim plight but the firedoors and barricades have remained in place since.
The Independent understands that at the heart of this standoff is the fact that the Happy Valley Body Coporate is virtually defunct and devoid of the funds needed to bring the Walton’s section of the walkway up to a safe standard for pedestrian traffic.
And as this edition went to press, legal paperwork aimed at resurrecting the body corporate so that the key players involved could contribute some funds towards remedial work was only just in the hands of one of the key players.
STOP PRESS
As this special issue went to press, an optimistic local Councillor, David Hinchliffe, rsaid that after strenuous negotiations between property owners in the Valley the 10 day old stalemate over a public walkway may come to an end either later today or tomorrow morning.
“I am reasonably confident that after discussions among lawyers and owners a Future Management Agreement (FMA) may soon be in place between the three principal owners of the walkway," he said. “The three owners are Bovis Lend Lease (owners of the Valley Metro where the Valley train station is located), Mount Cathay Pty Ltd (owners of the Waltons building who closed their section of the walkway) and Happy Valley body corporate (owners of the building next to Wickham St). “This closure has cost well over $100,000 in lost business for over a hundred businesses in the local area. I understand that the Future Management Agreement will lay down a process for sharing the maintenance and liability issues for the walkway. “The walkway has an easement over it, but it is not a public easement, so council had limited powers.
“Open the doors now” was the chant as ALP Lord Mayor candidate Ray Smith joined a protest at the barricaded section earlier this month.
Faith Walker, 86, of Windsor, pictured with Cr David Hinchliffe, said the closure was the most disgusting thing she had seen in decades of daily visits to the Valley.
Local traders listen to a progress report on the closure. They have had almost daily letdowns over rumours of a breakthrough.
ALP Lord Mayoral candidate Ray Smith, local council candidate Paul Crowther and state MP Grace Grace address local traders.
