By CHARLENE GATT
THE Footscray community is concerned the advent of more paid parking will drive shoppers away from Footscray’s CBD.
Maribyrnong City Council tabled its proposed paid parking consultation at last week’s council meeting, noting that between its blog pages, letters and meetings with traders, the majority of people did not support more paid parking in Footscray’s CBD.
The council sought comments on extra paid parking machines in Footscray’s CBD, whether street paid parking should be one or two hours, and taxi ranks, loading zones, disabled parking bays and 15-minute parking spots.
Out of the respondents, 53 opposed paid parking and 20 supported the move.
Two of the letters attached petitions, with 65 signatures from the Vietnamese community and 80 signatures from visitors to the physiotherapy centre in Pickett St.
One anonymous blogger wrote: “why should we have more parking machines? Footscray will then become a very expensive place to shop and dine”.
On the flip side, fellow blogger David Milner said: “A reality check … parking machines will not make Footscray become a very expensive place to shop at all”.
One suggested parking should be free around school areas like Gilmore College, while one resident called for dedicated “permit holder only” parking bays.
The council has put out a map detailing its proposed expansion of paid parking machines, which will cover about 700 car parking bay in central Footscray.
The expansion would mean around 1350 parking spaces in Footscray would fall under paid parking since the council introduced the measure in 2004 as part of its parking management strategy to alleviate the frustration of trying to find a car park in Footscray’s CBD.
Residents with a valid parking permit will not pay for parking in their street.
Paid parking in Footscray recently went up 10 cents to $1.10 per hour between 8am to 6pm.
Footscray Traders Association president Grant Miles said the consultation process was just a box ticking exercise for Maribyrnong City Council.
“I got the feeling the decision was made and it didn’t really matter what we said in the consultation meeting we had,” Mr Miles said.
“We pointed out a couple of things we disagreed with – including how, for some reason, they seem to think only Footscray deserves parking meters. We don’t understand why they don’t put them in any other areas.”
The council will release a detailed report on the new paid parking strategy at the September council meeting.
