By Sahar Foladi
Residents on Huckson Street and its surrounds in Dandenong are calling for parking permits in the face of ongoing parking shortages.
A stay-at-home mother-of-three, Faiza has been living in the medium density dwelling for nine years and throughout all three of her pregnancy.
“That’s our biggest issue, the parking and it’s always frustrating.
“We have a garage but as most houses we have two cars and our garage has space for only one. At the end of the day we have to find at least one space for our car.”
According to the residents, train commuters park their cars in the area as it’s within a walking distance to the Dandenong train station.
“You see people park their car and walk to the station. I don’t blame them because it’s free parking but at the same time most of us with babies have to track down parking in this cold and rain.”
Although Anh Panh does not have to deal with the parking issue with one car and a garage space, she feels for others when she sees them trekking streets to reach their house after a tiring day at work.
“A lot of people who finish at 6 pm, I see them struggle a lot because they have to walk around to get to their house.
“It’s a struggle if I want to park in front of the house and go back in for something.”
This leaves very limited parking access for residents who’re than forced to park two to three streets away from their house.
“The majority of the time, I go and drop off my son at school, come back and all the parking spots are taken when I know 90 per cent of our neighbours are at work,” Faiza said.
Residents on Huckson Street and surrounding areas like Alex Scott Way are then forced to park wherever they can find the slightest available spot which is usually at the round curb, where the Greater Dandenong council officers have issued fines.
Faiza hasn’t been fined yet for parking but her sister did, when she came to visit one afternoon.
Haven Elkham on the other hand has been fined twice after she was forced to park at the curb just in front of her house.
“I learnt the hard way that you’re not allowed to park around the curb which I’ve done multiple different times because it gets so backed up with parking and there’s not really anywhere to park. I got fined for it twice.
“Now if there’s no parking I’ll park a couple streets over because there’s not a lot you can do.”
Sue, a business owner only 450 metres away from the residential area said she regularly walks her dog in the morning at 7:30am and spots council officers fining cars.
“I feel for the residents. I see these guys nearly every day.
“I believe it’s at night when residents come from work and by 9 am people go off to work that’s why council comes nice and early in the morning.”
She has operated in the area for 10 years as a business owner and says they’ve had ongoing parking issues.
“I asked the council for permit parking but they won’t agree instead, they suggested four-hour parking but that wouldn’t suit my customers and staff who work eight hour shifts.
“We’ve been booked just having our nose in our driveway.”
The residents are also calling on the Council for permit parking so they can park in front of their dwellings.
“If you get home when everyone else is getting home either you find a spot and someone else has to park two streets away or you drive past.
“We walk it with groceries but try to go for grocery shopping on days when we know people are at work so we can find a parking,” Ms Elkham said.
“A permit would be nice, I want everyone who lives here to be able to park in front of their property”
Councillor Jim Memeti, had brought the residential permit idea to the table in the past to council officers but was turned down.
“I’ve always sought after permit parking for residents but that’s something council officers have never pursued in the past and I think it’s time for another review.
“As the Greater Dandenong City develops and more people call Greater Dandenong home, it’s vital to address the issue.”
While there are multiple unpaid car parks which may fill up rapidly for commuters, there’s a car park permit site on Carroll Lane – which is the site of Council’s proposed $120m-plus rectangular stadium.
The parking permit costs $219 for three months which is equivalent to around $3 per day.
“We need to encourage people working in CBD to use the permit car park site.
“At the moment they don’t want to go there because they don’t want to pay. Unfortunately, this falls back onto nearby residents,” Cr Memeti said.
