Eighty businesses and homes in the Newcastle CBD will lose power for eight hours on Saturday as part of ongoing construction work for the upcoming Newcastle 500 Supercars race.
Ausgrid will cut off the supply to parts of Hunter and Watt Street between 8:30 am and 4:30 pm to allow for the disconnection and removal of street lighting for footpath upgrades.
Businesses were informed about the disruption in the same week as Newcastle City Council announced plans to close part of Watt Street from this week until August 26.
Owner of Rowie's Liquor Store on Hunter Street, Shannyn Robards, fears his business will experience a significant loss of profits due to the power outage.
"It reduces our capacity to trade because we don't have a cash register and an EFTPOS," said Mr Robards.
"During the period of the outage, we would generally take between $2,000 and $2,500 in takings on an average Saturday."
The decision means local businesses in the CBD have been forced to find an alternative electricity supply or face a day of lost trade.
"All we can do is try and source our own generator and take control of the problem ourselves," said Mr Robards.
"It's not only unfair, it's bad public relations."
The Newcastle 500 will take place from 24th - 26th November, 2017.
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| Owner of Rowie's Liquor Store on Hunter Street, Shannyn Robards. Picture: Newcastle Herald |
