Frosty reception for icehouse business
Print Edition
RESIDENTS in a traditional community in Hongkou District say an illegal ice storage business there is making their lives a misery.
Neighbors complain that water leaking from the 10-square-meter facility is creating damp in the building, while workers transporting ice before dawn and customers cause a disturbance.
The business on the ground floor of the building on Dalian Road provides ice cubes to nearby agricultural markets.
One neighbor said she is awoken by workers transporting the ice at 4am, while another said vehicles coming to collect orders cause a disturbance and block roads.
They also fear damp from the icehouse will damage the foundations of the building.
A Shanghai Daily reporter yesterday contacted the owner of the ice storage, Cheng Tianming, calling a number printed on the door of the icehouse.
Cheng said his family owned the room and have been running the ice storage business for more than 10 years.
He buys ice, stores it in the icehouse and resells it to vendors in nearby wet markets.
Cheng does not live in the building and says he has no other livelihood.
On the icehouse door, paint has been blistered by leaking water, while inside the ice is covered with pieces of cloth.
“I don’t think my storage causes any problems. I’ve heard no complaints from neighbors,” Cheng said.
He admitted that he had previously transported the ice early in the morning, but had now changed this to 4pm.
“If the government thinks there is a problem, they can come to me,” he added.
The neighborhood committee of the residential complex said it will contact Cheng to try to persuade him to shut down the icehouse.
“We know about the complaints by neighbors and are in the process of solving the issue,” said Wang Guoxia, a neighborhood committee official.
Wang said they hadn’t asked for help from urban management teams or industry and commercial watchdogs.
Hongkou District Industrial and Commercial Bureau said they can only act if Cheng is selling ice without a license.
“And we can do nothing if Cheng is not there, as we cannot break into residents’ homes,” said an official with the bureau, who declined to be named.
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