.
Neighbourhood > Guest Character Profiles > Peter Smith Tom Coltrane

The Australian manager of global construction firm, LSL Constructions, Peter Smith turned up at the Daniels Corporation office one day to speak to Paul Robinson. It seemed that Rosemary Daniels, the owner of the corporation, had sent him to speak about plans to invest in a supermarket project, but Paul was shocked to realise that his home, and Ramsay Street, were about to be demolished to build the supermarket access road. Peter warned Paul that there was no room for sentimentality in business and gave him the weekend to decide. When Monday came, Paul was still unsure and Peter piled on more pressure by telling him that another company were interested in the deal, and that Rosemary would be very disappointed if the Daniels Corporation were to lose out. In the end, Paul realised that he had little option but to agree.

The first person Paul told was his grandmother, Helen Daniels, who shared the office with him. She was astounded as Paul started sending out letters to the residents of Ramsay Street, offering to buy up their houses. Clive Gibbons, who rented number 22, was shocked to find out that his landlord, Mr Harding, had sold the house from under him. A similar situation occurred at number 24, when Tom Ramsay, the legal owner of the house, sold it out from under his sister, Madge. Other residents weren’t so easy to win over, as Jim Robinson, Paul’s father, from number 26, and local bank manager Des Clarke, from number 28, refused to sell. Meanwhile, Mrs Mangel, who owned number 32 with her husband, began angling for a better deal, before Paul told her that if she didn’t sell, it wouldn’t matter, as she’d just end up with a house on the edge of a supermarket access road. As the deals continued, and Paul pressed Des and Jim to change their minds, Helen moved out of the office and Paul’s best friend, Madge’s nephew Shane, turned his back on his mate. When Peter returned, he was disappointed to find so few residents had agreed to sell and warned Paul to use whatever tactic he could. When Paul phoned his father and begged him to reconsider, he was again met with resistance, and Peter was annoyed with the lack of influence Paul seemed to have.

When Paul suggested to Peter that they should move the access road elsewhere, Peter came up with an alternative plan. He suggested that Paul take his family out for the day and, whilst the house was empty, a little accident would see it burnt to the ground. Paul was horrified and told Peter that he wouldn’t be involved in any illegal activity. When Peter threatened to speak to Rosemary, Paul said that she would rather go to the police than see her own mother made homeless like that, so Peter warned him that LSL and the Daniels Corporation were now linked and any illegal activity would bring both companies down. At that point, Paul announced that the deal was off and he was cutting all ties with LSL Constructions. When Peter then tried to buy numbers 22 and 24 Ramsay Street, Paul told him that he wasn’t prepared to sell, and he became landlord to both Clive and Madge.

Biography by Steve

Back