Newcastle's Light Rail Project is completely different to the Light Rail Project underway in Sydney's CBD according to the state government.
It's why they disagree businesses on Hunter Street should be given rental assistance to compensate for the disruption the project has caused.
Sydney's project on George Street has been drawn out for some time and the rental reprieve plan for businesses was announced in August after sustained pressure with the project running overtime by years in some sections. The businesses in the identified construction zones had to prove their financial losses to be eligible.
Parliamentary Secretary for the Hunter Scot MacDonald said he knows businesses are struggling but it's not like the construction came with no warning.
"We told businesses as early as two years ago, that when this gets underway businesses will feel the pain, there's no question about it and at that time 18 months, 2 years ago I said people should be planning, they should be talking to their landlords, they should be talking to their customers and preparing themselves for it," said Scot MacDonald.Some businesses in Hunter Street have reported losses of up to 30 per cent.
Hunter Business Chamber CEO Bob Hawes says he's not aware of the exact agreement Sydney businesses are in, but he feels Newcastle should be given the opportunity to have some rent relief.
"But we do believe that if the evidence is there and there is a strong case that can be built that we would hope the government would be objective enough to at least listen or look at it, and appreciate that there might be circumstance there that suggest it might be different to Sydney."
In the end, Scot MacDonald said it should be short time loss for a very long-term gain.
"look we'd like to believe that when we come out of this in 18 months or 2 years time or so since we are progressing through in blocks fairly quickly or reasonably quickly, that we come out at the end of and there is a city there, a CBD there, that people will delight coming to," said Scot MacDonald.
