Dore out of line

I WRITE in response to the comments made by George Dore at the Cardinia CEO’s address to the business community held at Cardinia Cultural Centre on 10 September.
Excuse me Mr Dore!
The business owners in the Main Street, arcades and surrounding areas, who will be directly impacted upon due to the Treloar Lane carpark being closed for 18 months, do not appreciate being called “whingers” and “lazy” by folk like yourself who clearly have no understanding of the seriousness of this issue.
I think perhaps if one of your family members had a business in the Main Street and their livelihoods were being threatened through no fault of their own that maybe you would think twice before making light of the situation.
Owning your own business is always a bit of a gamble for most people who choose to do so. If we make the wrong decisions over time and our business fails accordingly, we know the blame falls wholly and solely with us and we must pick up the pieces, learn from our mistakes and move on.
However, if an event arises that is completely out of our control and we then have to watch everything we have worked the past 10, 15, 20 years for disappear down the drain (and for some this means the roof over their heads) it is a very bitter pill to swallow.
The main concern I have with the response from the council regarding the temporary parking is this. Numbers!
The amount of carparks we are losing is higher than the amount we are temporarily being compensated with and let me assure you it is not about where we or our staff park, our concerns are for our customers ability to be able to access our businesses.
Yes it will be wonderful when the new shopping centre is completed and we have over 1000 new car spaces for our customers but I can assure you Mr Dore, 18 months is well long enough to send some of our businesses, who have been servicing the community for years, to the wall.
So I ask you Mr Dore and those who share your opinion, to really think hard before labeling myself and my neighboring business owners as “spoilt” and “whingers”.
Alison Fromhold,
Sports Power owner,
Pakenham.