My Account
A survey conducted among Silverdale businesses around four months ago highlights the area’s ongoing concerns about roading and access.
The survey was part of the process that the Silverdale Area Business Association is undertaking as it considers becoming one of Council’s targeted rate funded Business Improvement Districts (BID). A total of 306 responses were received.
The majority of participants (70 percent) feel that the Silverdale area is generally getting better for business, whereas 18 percent say it’s staying the same and nine percent that it is getting worse.
This sense of division between the ‘old’ and ‘new’ Silverdale areas is an overarching issue for many, with businesses located in Silverdale Village generally more pessimistic (22 percent of them say that the Silverdale area is generally getting worse).
By far the biggest concern for local businesses, however, is accessibility and roading (45 percent) with 22 percent also concerned about traffic congestion.
Thirty-six percent of those surveyed say that improving roading and traffic flow, such as having lights or a roundabout at the Silverdale Street/Hibiscus Coast Highway intersection, would make Silverdale more desirable as a business location.
Competition is another issue for business owners. A total of 11 percent note that competitors like the Albany shopping mall have affected their customer numbers and some in Silverdale Village feel they are losing customers to the Silverdale Centre.
The survey also asked participants to estimate where their customers come from. Just under half (47 percent) come from elsewhere in the Auckland and Rodney area. Only around a third (35 percent) come from wider Silverdale.
This indicates that while local customers are important, Silverdale is a regional centre.
Lorraine Sampson, who is on the Transport working group of the Silverdale Area Business Association says the group has heard loud and clear that roading is a key issue; something they were already keenly aware of.
She says that the group has taken the bit in its teeth and recently had some very positive meetings with Auckland Transport representatives, including chief strategy officer Peter Clark.
“We spent a while with a large map of the area, and there was a ‘Eureka moment’ when Peter said he understood exactly what we are dealing with.”
Mr Clark is returning to talk with the working group later this month and Mrs Sampson says she feels this could be the breakthrough that the Association has worked so hard, for so long for.
She says that the process of forming a Business Improvement District (BID) has been put aside for now while the Association works on building its membership and dealing with traffic.
“When we have a larger group behind us we will have the power and the finances to move forward in a big way,” she says.
