Motueka business owners received a rather rude shock on Monday morning, unlocking their doors to discover that road cones were blocking off the customer parking up and down both sides of High Street.
Our Town Motueka coordinator Claire Hutt says that the phone calls came thick and fast, with irate and confused retailers asking what on earth was going on.
“It was chaos,” Claire summarises. No, it was not International Cone Day, as one online commenter suggested, and nor were they left behind from the town’s Christmas parade – Claire stresses that those cones had been all packed away as soon as the parade finished on Friday night. Instead, it was a miscommunication, according to an email response to Claire from the Tasman District Council’s Mike Schruer, who oversees community infrastructure.
He reported that the cones were for Monday night’s upcoming fire well repairs, “but someone got a bit keen and obviously placed these cones at the same time as they were setting up other traffic management sites in Motueka”.
Any cones which had not already been shifted by defiant retailers were officially moved from the roadside to the footpath by 10.30am, in preparation for that evening’s fire well repair work.
