By BLAKE METCALF-HOLT
CONSENSUS seems to have been met regarding Latrobe City Council’s Streetscapes Strategy, which would see the removal of more than 70 carpark spaces in each of the major central business districts in the municipality.
The proposal hits Traralgon CBD the most, with an attempt to beautify the surrounding townships with more tree canopies meaning the potential of 52 carparks lost in an area routinely jam-packed.
Local businesses within the Traralgon CBD, who’ve already recognised this issue with customers, are beginning to push back.
Owner of Traralgon News and Lotto, Gary Garth and owner of Ramsay’s Hairdressers, Mark Ramsay flagged the issue following the proposal’s announcement at the September council meeting.
“Retail’s tough enough as it is at the moment, but I tell you what, this sort of policy will definitely not help the retail businesses that are doing it tough,” Mr Garth told the Express.
“At the moment, we have people come in and say ‘we’ve been around the block three/four times until we finally got a carpark’, you take another 52 out, there’ll be people (that) drive around and then they won’t come in.”
Mr Garth said that upwards of 300 people who’ve come into his store have voiced their frustrations about the streetscapes proposal.
He added that local businesses and residents alike were “stunned” by the proposal, seemingly coming out of nowhere.
“What are they trying to do? Drive people away? We just can’t understand why something like this would be proposed from council because that’s not helping local business and it’s not helping people shop locally,” he said.
Mr Ramsay questioned why Traralgon would be subjected to the carparking slash the most, considering how hard it already is to find one.
“Every business will be effected,” he said.
Mr Ramsay, who has worked within the Seymour Arcade for more than 40 years, added that council haven’t been transparent enough with effected businesses regarding these removals.
“It verges on vindictiveness … we haven’t been consulted at all,” he said.
“The continual denigrating of the parking over the last 15 years … we actually lost one out of every six car parks about 10 years ago.”
The construction of the Kay Street multi-level carpark scheduled to be completed by mid-2026 is said to alleviate this issue with an additional 430 spaces available.
However, many business owners still have concerns for their elderly customers frequenting the CBD, who would then have to walk a longer way to get to shops.
Mr Ramsay contended that there should actually be more carparks along the street, specifically more disability car spots.
David Panther, owner of Panthers Menswear (which has shops in Traralgon and Moe) sent a detailed message to council opposing the streetscapes proposal.
“I just think it defies logic,” he said.
“Our business has been here a long time … it’s sort of ground zero here in the CBD (Traralgon shop is positioned on the corner of the Franklin Street-Seymour St traffic lights) and there are always parking issues here, but there’s parking issues right throughout the CBD.”
Mr Panther welcomes the new multi-level carparks in the area, the other on Seymour St, but said there is still people shopping at the opposite end of the CBD having issues finding a spot.
That problem for locals even extends into the early hours of the business day.
“There is a premium of parking, there (are) people that are doing laps from early in the morning right through until mid to late afternoon … that time between 10(am) and 4(pm) is really hard,” he said.
Mr Panther also suggested that more signage be posted along the Princes Highway to better help identify the carpark facilities for visitors to the region.
This was a sentiment that correlated with Mr Ramsay, who said many customers coming from out of town are not aware that the Seymour St site is a free carparking space.
Both Mr Panther and Mr Ramsay highlighted the additional issue of the existing plain trees along the streetscapes, which they argue have not been well kept with its root base pushed up into the concrete.
“They’re not maintained properly as is,” Mr Ramsay said.
All-in-all, Mr Panther wants to see local decision-makers listen to the community’s concerns.
“I just believe that the councillors would see logic and listen to their constituents, and also their ratepayers, and try and accept the fact that reducing the car spots in the CBD by over 50 car spots is a really silly idea,” he said.
The latest Kay St multi-level carpark is a part of the state government’s Regional Car Park Fund, which is said to deliver 900 new car spaces across Traralgon, Morwell and Moe.
