Well it has been an interesting time in Christchurch since the earthquake struck on Saturday Sept 4th 4.35am. We have seen many examples of people stepping up and working for the common good of their fellow Cantabrians which is always great to see. Keep up the good work out there and stay positive.

Please do not forget we have our CCBA Annual General Meeting this Thursday at 5.30pm. We would love to see you come along and join us. This is your opportunity to have a say in this coming years CCBA board appointments and we encourage you to use your vote. This is a very important time in the history of Christchurch and your chance to help rebuild, revitalise and shape the future of central city.

We have made available the facility for members to vote online at http://www.christchurchcity.org.nz/election-voting-form.php We will post all nominations' for the CCBA board elections on our website prior the election where you will be able to view the nominees profile and photo to assist your choice.

You should have already received an invite - but in case you haven't the details are:

Meeting Date: Thursday 28th October - 5.30pm
Meeting Venue: Upstairs Function Room above Suede (formerly the Ferment Bar)
Venue Address: The Terrace - 128 Oxford Tce

Business Assistance
Services specially designed to assist in the recovery include:
Biz
A specialist information and referral service funded by NZTE to help people start and develop businesses, providing information, contacts, training and advice. Biz has a nationwide network of walk-in information centres, an 0800 42 49 46 help line phone service and a website www.business.govt.nz (which is run by the Ministry of Economic Development). 

Business Mentors
Business Mentors New Zealand is offering fully subsidised (funded by NZTE) registration for any business affected by the Canterbury Earthquake.  You are able to apply and receive free mentoring assistance, whereby a mentor will be assigned to personally to talk through your own specific issues and put in place a personalised recovery plan.  Call 0800 209 209 and/or check out the website for more information www.businessmentors.org.nz

Training
NZTE is funding Earthquake Recovery Training workshops, which are being run through CDC and CECC.  These workshops are free to attend.  The full programme of training workshops and registration details is available at click on the link to view - http://www.christchurchcity.org.nz/eq-recovery-training.php

There are still real concerns that in the wake of the quake that many businesses will not survive without continued support.  They say 150 across Canterbury will dissappear but it could be a lot more. The real cost of one person on umemployment is $58,000 a year. If we lose 400 small businesses at an average of 3 people per business, 1200 X $58000. A direct cost of $69 million a year not to mention the 15% gst from those businesses. Starts to stack up.

 

City Parking
We are still still hopeful council will come out and support the two hour free parking to continue 'till Christmas. We see this as a long term initiative and will work with council on how it could be funded. Obviously, the immediate cost would be less than the loss of businesses and jobs in the city. We understand our request is waiting to be placed on the council agenda for discussed at the next council meeting.

 

Insurance Support

I am hearing from too many businesses that are not getting the support needed to continue. Many have solid insurance cover to assist them in times of need and this is most definately one of those times but I have been hearing the insurers are not forthcoming with the necessary funds to support businesses.

The following is a comment from a national retailer...
"I have two national fashion chains with two outlets in Christchurch. I will not fight the insurer by myself. I am not stupid. What I will do is just close and walk away. The insurer is for sure just trying to wait many of us out. Once we walk we will have no claim. I dont kid myself Paul, Christchurch can survive without me, but I suspect that Christchurch cannot afford the likes of me to walk away to suit an insurer".  Very concerning comments.

 

Cordons

If you need to give your insurance company information on the state and placement of the cordons after the earthquake to assist in getting your loss of profit insurance, I have put together a time line for you. You can download this information from our website - http://www.christchurchcity.org.nz/cbd-earthquake-notices.php 

 

Current City Trading Trading 
Many of city businesses are just not seeing the spending people back in their busineses. There have been foot traffic counts done to assess the level of drop off but the figures show foot traffic has only dropped minimally but it is spending patterns that have changed. Some businesses are still trading from 20 - 80% less than prior the earthquake. 

However, some businesses are running great promotions that are proving to be successful so I ask you again to ensure you use your databases and incentivise your customers back into the city. We are not out of the woods yet so I encourage you all to do what you can to encourage people back into the city.

Christmas Trading Hours
We have posted recommended Christmas Trading hours on our website. These are based on Ballantynes trading hours with the exception of 1st January. To view these hours clink on the link: http://www.christchurchcity.org.nz/trading-hours.php

Promotion & Advertising
I cannot stress enough the importance of promoting your business to your database, encouraging people back into the city.

• Cup & Show Week: Don't forget Cup & Show Week starts 6th November. For details go to http://www.christchurchcity.org.nz/cup--show-week-1.php to view the calendar of events.

• Horse Drawn Tram: Regardless of all the issues we face in the city. we will still try and bring the Horse Drawn Tram back in for Christmas. I have successfully secured enough funds to get the horse drawn tram operating for a few day but still need more funds to run it for six to seven days as planned. I would like to thank the people who have helped withe the funding so far.