By BRIDGET SCOTT
TRADERS along a busy street in Cranbourne are fed up with the overflow of cars as the redevelopments at Cranbourne Park continue. Cars have lined the tiny street that is Mundaring Drive for the past nine-12 months, much to the disappointment of business owners and residents along the road.
Business owners said the extra cars were those of tradesmen and women who were part of the redevelopments happening at the major shopping complex next door. Karen Dixon from Cranbourne Park Chiropractic Centre said she had had patients complain, while some hadn’t been able to access the street at all.
“How would an emergency vehicle get through?” she said.
“Lots of patients have complained and some have had near misses.”
Ms Dixon said she had given up contacting council and said there needed to be some sort of parking restrictions along the road. City of Casey manager for Transport Ms Anitha Ajay said the council regularly inspected parking in Mundaring Drive, Cranbourne.
“At the time of previous inspections, parking levels were comparable with other local residential streets with similar facilities and the traffic movement within the street deemed appropriate,” she said.
“Once the school term commences, council will further investigate and assess the need for any parking restrictions in Mundaring Drive.”
A spokesperson from Cranbourne Park said tradespeople working on site were “currently utilising a new underground car park that provides parking for more than 300 cars.”
“We’ll open this car park when we unveil the transformed Cranbourne Park in late March,” they said.
Ms Dixon said traders were “fed up”, and with cars double parked on each side of the road it was very dangerous.
Penny Phipps and Sue Lew from the dentist across the road from Ms Dixon’s practice have also had trouble, and said one of their customers was hit when exiting the car park, with their car ending up a write off.
They said the added traffic and cars had deterred some customers from making appointments and said they had looked elsewhere.
Both businesses have been along the road for more than 10 years, and the businesswoman agreed nothing like this has happened before.
“It becomes a one-way street,” Ms Lew said.
Ms Dixon said she was aware of parking spaces available within the complex and said there was only so long people along Mundaring Drive can put up with it.
