By Vanessa Chircop
Cr Briffa raised a notice of motion requesting council officers prepare a report into the implementation of the Altona Shopping Village Parking Strategy, including a feasibility study into a multi-storey car park.
Cr Altair also voiced her concerns, raising a similar notice of motion for the Williamstown Central Business District (CBD).
“I wanted to bring this forward because it’s becoming a very, very serious problem in Williamstown,” Cr Altair said.
“More and more shops are opening up, which is a good thing – but the pressure of finding adequate car parking is just intense and intensifying.
Cr Altair and Cr Peter Hemphill both said it was unfortunate that the council didn’t take the opportunity to develop more parking by purchasing some open space when it became available near Williamstown’s Coles.
“And when that’s developed, that’s going to add greater pressure on that whole CBD,” Cr Altair said.
“We’ve got stacks – shelves full of studies all saying the same thing, that the council needs to bite the bullet and make some hard decisions and spend big money to try and alleviate parking shortages in the CBD.
“It is quite an urgent matter that we need to try and deal with … it’s not going to be an easy one, but we need to get our heads around it because the problem is not going to go away – it’s going to get even worse.”
