Pole problem for businesses

Action by protesters against the proposed gas hub at James Price Point outside Woodside’s Broome office last week have been labelled “commercial vandalism” by the business community.

Broome police were forced to block entry to Coghlan Street on Wednesday morning while dealing with one of the protesters atop an 8m pole, secured by ropes which blocked off entry to the Woodside office.

The man on the pole was safely brought down around 4.30pm that afternoon. He was charged with breaching a move-on notice. Acting District Superintendent Shayne Atkins condemned the “illegal and foolish act”, which he said caused a “significant impost” on Broome’s volunteer base, with FESA and St John Ambulance volunteers providing assistance to police during the incident.

Broome Chamber of Commerce executive officer Maryanne Petersen said the stunt disrupted other businesses whose staff were unable to enter their offices.

“It’s resulted in an enormous cost for businesses if they have to send staff home and also the impact on clients,” she said.

“Because of the public holiday, operators try to fit in five days of business into four and [this] put enormous pressure on people to fit five days of business into three.”

Ms Peterson said the incident “created chaos and upset businesses” for no reason, and shed negative light on the town for visitors.

“It impacted on businesses and for what? Everyone knows about James Price Point…there were no solutions, no answers…it was just a stunt,” she said.

“It’s not a good scene for tourism, right there at the airport (tourists) are seeing police. People are not interested in seeing police cars.

“That’s not the sort of environment we want.” Broome Community No Gas Campaign spokeswoman Nik Wevers said it was disappointing and unfortunate if other businesses had been affected by the act, but said it was police, not the protesters who made the decision to close the road.

Ms Wevers said the protesters had no intention of disrupting any of the other businesses or government organisations.

“Our intention was to create another delay to Woodside,” she said. A Woodside spokesman said the company respected the rights of people to protest, but asked that they express their views in a peaceful and lawful manner.