By CAM LUCADOU-WELLS
A GREATER Dandenong councillor says Noble Park’s parking woes will kill off its business district unless a multi-deck car park is built.
Councillor Roz Blades said the area routinely clogged with cars could be aptly named ‘Noble Car Park’.
“People are now seeing there’s a multi-deck car park in Springvale and Dandenong but none in Noble Park.
“It’s in the centre between Dandenong, and Parkmore and Waverley Gardens shopping centres. Those other places become a more viable option if people can’t easily park.”
Leonard Avenue trader Adrian Bell is long-frustrated by the lack of nearby long-term parking for staff.
Mr Bell said a multi-storey car park or a permit system would help workers, who have been stung by a stream of parking tickets.
Last year he led a 200-strong petition of business owners and employees after an all-day car park in Leonard Avenue was amended to four-hour spots.
The nearest long-stay spots to Leonard Avenue are either in the railway car park, which is invariably full during the day, or in residential streets as close as 200 metres to the south.
Mr Bell said he’d had to walk as far as 500 metres between a long-term space and his business. Workers were afraid to walk unlit streets at night to their cars, he said.
Mr Bell will legally contest three parking tickets issued to him and staff parked in short-term spaces outside his business in January.
“There were hardly any cars around that time of year.
“The bookings just seemed like high-handed revenue-raising.”
The council’s engineering services director Julie Reid told a council meeting last month that 15-20 extra long-term car spaces were being created at the rear of a recently-completed development in central Noble Park.
She said any future parking projects would be “subject to any sort of capital bidding and budget processing”.
“Council officers will continue to explore opportunities in Noble Park to try and improve car parking supply, car movements and look at flexibility in access as well.”
