Cyberworld Internet cafe still fighting bureaucrats for survival

February 16th, 2011
[by David Armstrong]

The owners of Cyberworld Internet Cafe in High Street say they are facing bankruptcy while the authorities at Tasman District Council and the National Library of New Zealand continue to procrastinate or fend off their pleas to remove free internet access, including wireless, to all tourists at the Motueka Library.

Since the matter was made public at last November's Community Board meeting (see our report here), co-owner Julia Wilson-Howarth has corresponded with bureaucrats at several levels pleading for help to their flagging business, but to no avail. At least seven items relating to such correspondence were tabled at the February Community Board meeting last week.

According to Julia and her husband David, Cyberworld is the only place in Motueka serving the information needs of tourists outside business hours, but the daytime competition of the library's free access to all meant it was becoming increasingly difficult to sustain their business. Cyberworld also promotes and books for local tourism businesses and provides job information services for the horticulture industry.

Crucially, Cyberworld needs to renew leases on its premises and the on-site ASB automatic teller machine but it cannot do so without some assurance that they can remain in business. Julia told Motueka Online today that it will be a matter of time as to whether bankruptcy occurs before she hears of a decision from TDC. She says that despite all the correspondence at the end of 2010, she has heard nothing more from Council for the past four weeks.

In one letter, sent to local MPs, the Mayor, Council officers, ward Councillors and Community Board members, she said that "since the free internet has been operating at the Motueka Library in late 2008 we have gone from a viable business that employed four people to one that has had its internet turnover decreased by two thirds, and as a result (we are) having to make redundant two local staff, leaving my husband and I to operate it 13 hours a day seven days a week and unable to pay ourselves a regular wage for over eight months. We are on the verge of having to close our doors by the end of June this year if there is no change in the Aotearoa People's Network stance."

Aotearoa People's Network Kaharoa (NPNK) is a unit of the National Library, which offers equipment and software to enable participating libraries around New Zealand to offer free internet access to all - locals and tourists alike. Motueka Library, through TDC, has such a contract, which is up for renewal in a few months. Aiming to help Cyberworld (and in principle all local tourism businesses), the Community Board has asked TDC not to renew the contract then.

Julia says that although Council has so far not offered any useful assistance or reassurance, she does have "support of many of our community, many of whom aren't even customers but are unhappy about the conditions at the library", where local people find difficulty accessing the computers while tourists spend hours logged on for nothing. Many tourists also sit around outside the library using the wireless connection service, also for free.

Council's main concern since Julia first pleaded with them was that if the library ceased offering free internet to the tourists, authorities would be liable for not fulfilling their contract with APNK due to "human rights issues". Julia said she has spoken with the Human Rights Commission and had been told that this was not a human rights issue and that there are many other otherwise free government or council-funded facilities that also charge tourists. She also noted that many other APNK libraries are charging non-card holders for internet use.

One of the main objections raised in a letter from Helen Tait, acting manager of APNK, was that limiting free access to the wireless network would mean locals would have to be issued with passwords, which would become difficult to manage. She also said that these days many businesses such as restaurants, banks and bookshops offer free wireless internet access to attract customers, so Cyberworld may just have to face up to a changing commercial world.

Noting the Motueka Community Board's request that the Council not renew its APNK contract this year, TDC's Community Services Manager Lloyd Kennedy proposed that the pros and cons of this issue be debated by Council after a report is presented to Council at the March or April meeting. Problem is, by then it may be too late for Julia and David Wilson-Howarth.

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