Cranbourne High Street traders (from left) Emad Fanous, Lance Beckwith, Pauline Cargill, Naresa Hancock, Julie Marriott and Lee Grant want more short-term parking.
By Sarah Schwager
THE clock is ticking for Cranbourne traders who say they are losing business because of a lack of 15-minute parking spaces on High Street.
The parking issue along the main street of Cranbourne has consistently grown worse as the population, industry and business increase.
Now with the new Cranbourne Market operating four days a week and the Aldi supermarket under construction, traders say parking will become even more of a nightmare for customers and staff.
Phantom Wines owner Lee Grant said his business and other shops where people only dropped in for a few minutes, were losing business because of the lack of parking.
“People say they have tried to stop and come in but haven’t been able to find a park,” Mr Grant said.
“Who knows how many other customers we are losing?”
Lance Beckwith from Superclean Dry Cleaners on High Street said the whole street should be made into 15-minute spaces. He said if people wanted to park for longer they could use the parking strip behind High Street.
Earlier this year Casey Council installed four new 15-minute parking spots in place of the one-hour parks.
At last week’s council meeting during public question time, some residents urged council to change all the 15-minute spots on High Street to at least 45 minutes.
Cranbourne resident Geoff Cousins said the 15-minute parks were unrealistic.
“You can’t expect people to jump out of the car and do something in 15 minutes,” he said.
“Even if you’re just going to the bank, you can’t guarantee that you’ll be the only person in the queue.”
However, Mr Beckwith said when the Aldi supermarket opened the parking problem would only get worse.
But Casey mayor Kevin Bradford said Aldi had already agreed to let non-Aldi shoppers use its 100 new parking spots when it opened in late November or early December.
“Obviously with the addition of new businesses on the east side of High Street, such as the Cranbourne Market (which is open Wednesday to Saturday) and also Aldi, it has revitalised that whole side of the shopping strip and put pressure on the amount of parking available,” Cr Bradford said.
Julie Marriott, owner and manager of balloon and party centre PIPS, said the parking around High Street was horrendous.
“We’re losing customers,” she said.
“This is a major issue in this part of Cranbourne.”
The Cheesecake Shop’s Nahed Fanous said she had driven around and around the block trying to find a park, which made it difficult when trying to make a delivery.
Woops A Daisy manager Pauline Cargill said people were having to park two blocks away just to pick up flowers.
Cr Bradford said one of the biggest problems with parking came after the Federal Government installed the Centrelink office but did not allocate enough staff parking, with many staff parking behind High Street.
“About two weeks ago I requested another review for council officers to look at reducing the parking times behind High Street,” he said.
Cr Bradford said the parking issue was also factored into the Cranbourne town structure plan.
“We will have to create more car parking to cater for the additional population and businesses coming into Cranbourne,” he said.
