BY JESSICA ROUSE

Premier Gladys Berejiklian is in Newcastle today to speak with business owners about the state budget and how it will affect them and the whole Hunter region.

The Premier will also no doubt be grilled on the disruption in the city with the Light Rail project and Newcastle 500 preparation underway.

Some business owners on parts of Hunter and Watt Street will be after answers from the Premier with Ausgrid announcing they’ll be cutting off power this Saturday for eight hours.

The power is scheduled to be out between 8:30am and 4:30pm so street lights can be replaced in preparation for the V8 race in November.

Businesses are worried about the loss of power during the day, and on a weekend, fearing they will lose a lot of business with electronic EFTPOS payments not able to be put through when there’s no power.

Fairfax reports some businesses get more than 80 per cent of their sales through EFTPOS at their store.




Image smh.com.au