WHEN he first heard about the proposed Woolworths petrol station in Tuncurry, local resident Paul van Drunen was initially optimistic. After all, he should know. He used to plan them for BP.
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But everyone is allowed to change their mind.
Mr van Drunen brings considerable prior knowledge to his decision to oppose the Woolworths fuel outlet. As a former network development manager for BP, he used to review their retail network, looking at existing sites and new markets with respect to its whole range of stakeholders.
So as a local resident, the man who started Facebook’s ‘Say No To Woolworths Petrol in Tuncurry’ page decided a Woolworths fuel outlet would not be a good thing after all, for the community of Forster Tuncurry itself.
“We need to keep that second Woolworths petrol station out of town, because if it comes, we will have one on both sides of the bridge, and the community will lose the fight for cheaper petrol,” he said.
In Mr van Drunen’s opinion, the Woolworths proposed full size convenience store will compete with pretty much anything else on the ground. The Caltex supplied fuel will be serviced by two to three semi-trailers of fuel a week, which according to Mr van Drunen’s calculations will cater for around 4500 vehicles buying an average 35 litres at the bowser.
Mr van Drunen is concerned that people regard Woolworths petrol as the best option for discounted fuel which, he said, is simply not the case.
“We live in a captured market, which leads to inflated prices. Don’t be hoodwinked by the discount proposition”.
“We can’t attack the independents, because they don’t control the price. The price is set by Woolworths and Coles, who will subsidise any losses through their supermarkets. In Forster’s case, they don’t even need to do that”.
Mr van Drunen said that whilst the terminal gate price (TGP) can give an indication of the difference between retailers and wholesalers, there is a whole profit making margin that the public cannot see. This system profits the mainstream outlets, but not the independents, who will generally buy less.
“The TGP varies according to the volume you buy. The more you buy, the cheaper it is”.
The development application currently before Great Lakes Council was due to be taken down from public display on Monday. Mr van Drunen is however seeking an extension for public submissions. Along with his general concerns towards the proposal, he has identified serious traffic problems along junctions joining Grey Gum Road and Pine Avenue to The Lakes Way.
“They have not used statistics or quantifiable numbers to justify their figures” he said.
Wayne Burgess, Council’s manager of development assessments, said that council would be happy to accept late submissions, and could show members of the public the proposed details of the application upon request.
“They [Woolworths] have done a fairly detailed traffic report, but we have referred the whole application to the Roads and Maritime Services. We also have our own traffic engineer looking at it. So we’re really just waiting to hear back from everybody,” he said.
Mr Burgess acknowledged that like many major applications, not everybody agreed with the proposal.
“But we have to do a value judgment on the application, listen to the experts, and look at the feedback. We can’t comment on the application at this time,” he said.
