Fruit seller sad to leave Square

Press, 18 March 1982, Page 1

Fruit seller sad to leave Square

Mr Leonard Ellis is upset about losing the fruit stall that he started in Cathedral Square six years ago. After suggesting the idea for the stall in the Square to the Christchurch City Council and keeping it going, rain or shine, for the last six years, Mr Ellis is upset about the council’s decision to lease his patch to someone else. The council decided on Monday to accept the highest tender for the fruit stall site from Mr and Mrs M. P. Chick, who offered between $4BOO and $5043 a year for the next three years. A tender from Mr Ellis of $3lOO annually for the site was rejected. His lease will expire on March 31 and, he says; he has no idea what he will do after then. “I haven’t thought of it yet. I don’t know what I will do,” he said yesterday. “I know I cannot do anything about the council decision. It has accepted the tender and that's that. I have to get out of the Square.” Before Mr Ellis started his fruit stall he had owned a frilit shop "in the suburbs. “People told me I was

mad, going into the Square, standing out in all sorts of weather, getting wet and cold,” he said. “I didn’t know how it would go. I suggested the idea of a fruit stall in the Square to the . council and it accepted my tender of $lOOO a year. It seemed a lot of money at the time. But the stall ' proved successful. I made a go of it.” The council had “pretty short memories,” he said. It had accepted a tender for $l7OO more than his after sending out a council valuer to put an annual value on the lease of the site. According to his accountant, Mr lan Fox, Mr Ellis was not asked by the valuer for any sales figures on the stall. The council - valuation on the rental value of the site was $3500 annually. “It seems a little rough to me. I believe Mr Ellis' tendered a realistic figure. Councillors’ claims that the unaccepted tenders were unrealistically low are absolute rubbish,” Mr Fox said, who doubted the economic

grounds of the council valuation. Mr Ellis said he had spent 53000 six years ago on a special, movable, stall, but he did not think he would sell it to the successful tenderers for the site. Mr W. ■ Davies, the Christchurch City Council’s administrative secretary, said that the council had made a policy decision to accept the tender. “When there is a decent sort of difference, the council has to take account of what is in the public interest, and accept the highest tender,” he said. “After all, it was not so many years ago that Ballantyne’s lost the duty-free concession at Christchurch Airport when someone else came up with a higher tender. "That was a big deal. A barrow in the Square is nothing compared with that. If the. concession up for tender is really worth while, the current concessionaire has to make a real bird of it or he may be outbid. It is one of the facts of life,” Mr Davies said.