Association urges members to follow gas usage advice

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RESTAURANT ASSOCIATION URGES HOSPITALITY PROVIDERS NOT TO USE GAS

Auckland, 27 October 2011 – The Restaurant Association of New Zealand today said that restaurants, bars and cafes reliant on gas should act responsibly during the current crisis with the Maui pipeline leak and follow official advice until the issue has been fixed.

The Restaurant Association, which represents 1,600 key restaurant and hospitality businesses and members throughout New Zealand, says that it is appalled the branch president of the Auckland Hospitality Association has urged its members to ‘rebel’ and continue to use gas.

Marisa Bidois, CEO of the Restaurant Association says the responsible and sensible approach for New Zealand restaurants, cafes and bars is to heed the official advice, which was recently updated to allow most hospitality businesses restricted gas use and in addition find alternatives if possible.

“While the leak is placing pressure on many entertainment and hospitality providers in the North Island, it is clear that the gas that is left in the system should primarily be used for essential services such as hospitals, schools and other key utilities, with restricted use now allowed for many of our member businesses.

“At an important time like this we need to take a step back and consider that these rules and regulations are in place specifically to ensure that more vulnerable services are protected during outages like we have now,” says Bidois.

Bidois also says that there are many restaurants and cafes that are abiding by the call to cut gas usage and that this has made a difference, allowing a steady supply to reach the areas where it is needed most.

“The Restaurant Association commends those restaurants, cafes and hospitality providers that are taking a sensible approach to the gas leak. While it will not be easy for businesses that are just catching up after a lean year, the approach is the right and legal one to take and we all have to shoulder the burden asked of us at this time.”

Bidois adds that the Restaurant Association is offering to provide whatever advocacy and assistance is needed to its members and is also keeping a close watching brief on developments to fix the gas leak and return supplies to normal.

‘The Restaurant Association is here to assist responsible business operators through this difficult time in any way it can. Rest assured that we are monitoring the gas leak situation very closely and keeping the restaurant and hospitality industry up to date with what they can do to minimise any loss of business.”

ENDS

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