By CAM LUCADOU-WELLS
TRADERS whose staff have been stung by a stream of parking tickets are calling for more long-term parking options in central Noble Park.
About 200 staff and business owners, particularly in the Leonard Avenue precinct, have signed a petition over the issue.
Some of them have also signed their support for a designated worker car park or a permit parking system.
Optometrist Adrian Bell said staff used to park in an all-day council-run car park in Leonard Avenue up until six months ago.
However, a four-hour limit was introduced after the spaces became cluttered with rail commuters’ cars.
“How do you expect us to run a business if staff have to move their cars all day long?
“I’ve lost a staff member who left after she got fined. I don’t want to lose another one.”
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 workers were afraid to walk the unlit streets to their cars at night.
“A lot of people park up there catching trains. I’ve had to walk in as far as 500 metres.”
Councillor Roz Blades said developments with insufficient on-site parking were causing problems.
The pressure is set to rise with a four-storey apartment building being built on the corner of Buckley and Noble streets and a 105-apartment proposal on the corner of Noble Street and Leonard Avenue which was approved by the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal last year.
In a letter to traders last Monday, Greater Dandenong Council’s transport leader Daniel Przychodzki stated there were “numerous” long term parking spaces within a “reasonable” walking distance up to 800 metres away.
Mr Przychodzki stated that the issue may be more about “public perception of personal safety” than a parking issue.
Douglas Street streetscape works, a public-area CCTV system and appropriate surrounding area street lights might improve “feelings of personal safety”, he stated.
Engineering services director Julie Reid said there was currently no need for additional multi-deck car parking in the area.
She said about 20-30 per cent of parking spaces were empty in the activity centre “even in peak periods”.
