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Businesses near Linwood mosque struggle to stay open

Author
Newstalk ZB,
Publish Date
Wed, 17 Jul 2019, 9:59AM
Photo / RNZ

Businesses near Linwood mosque struggle to stay open

Author
Newstalk ZB,
Publish Date
Wed, 17 Jul 2019, 9:59AM

Businesses near the Linwood mosque may soon be closing their doors after losing thousands of dollars when they were shut behind the police cordons for a week.

In the months since, customers have been slow to return and they don't quality for government help.

Canterbury New Zealand Business Association manager Taz Mukorombindo  says they can't get victim support funds.

"The classification of what a victim was, at least as far as the Victim Support funding, we were not quite directly impacted."

Mukorombindo says that, unfortunately, insurance doesn't provide cover.

Councillor Yani Johanson says David Parker told him the disruption to businesses wasn't sufficient to meet the threshold for emergency business support.

"It would be hard pressed in New Zealand that's had the psychological trauma and shared terror on a local community, alongside the impact financially on these businesses."

He says that there is urgent need and hopes there will be a reconsideration, but it may be too little to late.

"And that's really disheartening and it's incredibly heartbreaking to some of these businesses, which are likely to close as a result."

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