Article tarnishes our name

WITH reference to the article, "Plans for roadhouse revival” (December 21), it pains me to see your journalist, Shaun Gillham, get his facts so wrong. While Gillham is quick to name my husband as the proprietor of the Something Good roadhouse which went bankrupt, his facts in the article are misguided and untrue.

Our original lease on the property expired in 2005 and after numerous attempts to extend the lease period, the best the municipality offered us was on a month-to-month basis which we did for 36 months. For several years, we attempted to negotiate with various parties in the municipality but to no avail.

If, in fact, we had been granted a 99-year lease, as stated by Gillham, we would never have walked away from the business. At the time, it was alleged that this "prime” beachfront property would be developed into a convention centre which never materialised.

My husband toiled for more than 25 years at Something Good, making it one of Port Elizabeth’s best known roadhouses and we walked away with nothing. We got nothing but the run-around from the municipality and it disappoints me that my husband’s name is tarnished in such a way as in Gillham’s article.

Priscilla Marsal, Port Elizabeth 

I REGRET your ill feelings around the article, specifically as its intention was primarily to highlight the future of the roadhouse building and not to tarnish the name of any individuals – I therefore apologise for any ill feelings you or your husband may be experiencing as a result.

The information around your husband's involvement in the business was sourced from the Times Media electronic archives system where it states in previous articles that your husband's involvement with the building ended due to bankruptcy.

In addition, and having made a number of unsuccessful attempts to get the full history of the building from the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality communications department, I was again compelled to rely on our archives.

There was certainly no intention to put any individual in a bad light. – Shaun Gillham, The Herald reporter