Parking pressure plan

CAR parking is the most pressing issue facing Berwick Village Chamber of Commerce and Berwick business. Repeated requests to the council asking it to establish proper management of parking in the village have been futile.
Self regulation of parking by businesspeople is now the only option left for traders and that means the chamber of commerce is charged with the responsibility of formulating a strong parking plan and to press the council for its adoption.
The chamber must consider a radical plan with a ‘fixit’ factor. That means control and controversy.
Controversy is something the chamber can do without.
Long-time and continuing requests to office workers, train travellers, and some proprietors to park away from retail shops have received the one-fingered salute. These people arrive in the village first and park all day in the prime spots.
Many parking spaces have signs with time limits and these are ignored because drivers are fairly confident they will not receive a ticket for overstaying the allotted time. This is because parking inspectors seldom work the village.
The chamber needs to lobby for a mixture of parking bay machines and areas of permit parking.
Introduction of limits, if managed properly and policed, would prevent staff members and train travellers from using spaces paid for by retailers for use by shoppers.
The State Government is responsible for the provision of car parking for train travellers and this should not be foisted onto Village businesses.
Members of a chamber of commerce parking committee have assessed areas suitable for long and short-term parking as well as areas for permit parking. They are confident that a parking plan is feasible.
They believe a balanced plan, correctly managed, would mean many more spaces available to shoppers that are close to the shops. Office workers and business owners would have all-day permit areas.
The village is now facing an application to build a major centre on Lyall Road that has a request for 50 per cent reduction in the car parking allowance. Without management and control in the village, workers from this new centre would be flooding over Lyall Road to park in the village commercial centre. Ironically, because it would be a private building, management of this new precinct would be at liberty to restrict its own workers from parking in the new centre. Where would they go?
The council must co-operate with and support the chamber of commerce in its efforts to establish a management plan for parking.
The council must also refuse to allow any new building to go up with a parking allocation less than the accepted formula.
The claim that people would shop elsewhere because of parking meters is a furphy because most shoppers will put a coin in a meter if it means getting a parking spot.
Before long, all major shopping centres will have parking meters.