By BRIDGET COOK
RESIDENTS living in the vicinity of the Lynbrook railway station say they are being inconvenienced by overflowing cars from the packed carpark.
A petition signed by local residents was tabled at a Casey council meeting this month, calling on the council to investigate the problem of commuters parking their cars in the adjacent streets.
Head petitioner Richard Carty said there was inadequate parking at the station, causing drivers to park outside their homes along Paterson Drive and Alymer Road.
“It’s causing an inconvenience and grief for us residents as visitors and ourselves can no longer park outside our homes,” he said.
“There’s only residential development on one side of Paterson Drive, with parkland on the other, so it’s not a problem on that side.
“Cars are parked along the street about 500 metres from the station.
“It causes a great deal of problems if people want to have visitors over.”
Mr Carty said, ideally, the car park needed to be expanded by the State Government, but he believed the council should do something in the interim.
“An expansion is a long-term solution,” he said.
“The short-term solution is if the council could put in some sort of signage to allow only timed parking.
“But we don’t want to push the problem to another street.
“We are relying on the council to come up with some options.”
Mr Carty said the railway station was great for the suburb, but parking provisions should have been thought out better during development.
“The railway station is a boon for a lot of people,” he said.
“More and more people are using and taking advantage of the transport options, and we are extremely pleased it’s there.
“But the parking side effect wasn’t thought out at the time.”
Casey councillor Wayne Smith, who presented the petition on behalf of the residents, said the council needed to look at an interim solution to stop people’s houses being blocked by parked cars out the front of their home.
“Anyone who goes down there only has to look to see it’s an issue,” he said.
“It is a problem there.”
The council said officers were preparing a report on the matter which would be considered at a future council meeting.
A Public Transport Victoria (PTV) spokesperson said Lynbrook Station car park has space for about 250 cars, and additional land has been secured on the eastern side of the station that could potentially be used for further parking in the future.
“Although there are no current plans to increase the number of car parking spaces at Lynbrook Station, passengers also have the option of travelling to the station via bus Route 891, or by cycling and making use of the secure Parkiteer bicycle cage,” the spokesperson said.
“Passengers who live between Lynbrook and Merinda Park have the option of driving to Merinda Park Station where we have recently opened 150 additional car parking spaces, and will open about 200 more spaces shortly, which will mean 550 car spaces at nearby Merinda Park.”
