Car wash blues

By Bridget Brady
FRUSTRATED Cranbourne residents say they will camp out at a 24-hour car wash if the owners don’t monitor the anti-social behaviour there.
The residents are fed up with the constant noise, vandalism and burn-outs from users of the Easy Wash Car Wash in Cranbourne North, and say their plans for a protest signify the last straw of a four-year fight for peace and quiet.
Sue O’Neill, whose backyard is next to the car wash, said the owners of the car wash and adjoining service station, APCO Service Stations, didn’t man the car wash, clean it, or keep an eye on the “disgusting” happenings at the business.
“We have people urinating in the car wash bays and against the fence quite often and nothing is done about it. It’s feral. We’re at our wits’ end,” Mrs O’Neill said.
But APCO Service Stations director Peter Anderson said no residents had contacted him about the complaints.
“I think the whole thing has been blown out of proportion,” Mr Anderson said.
“We have had the odd hoon but unfortunately that can’t be controlled. It’s typical behaviour today of some people.”
Mr Anderson said he had an acoustic engineer working on the possibility of installing a fence or wall to block noise and would work with the council to alleviate the problems for residents.
Mrs O’Neill said residents would welcome an acoustic wall.
Neighbours said they were kept awake at night from the noise and “doof doof” of music playing in cars and people gathering at the car wash in the middle of the night.
The residents were also subjected to rubbish over their fences, sprays of water from the car wash, offensive language and hoons.
Mrs O’Neill said the residents would “stake out” the car wash and park their cars in all of the bays in protest if they did not have answers within the next week.
“They (APCO Service Stations) are trying to run a business, but they don’t have the right mindset for the job,” Mr O’Neill said.
“Running a 24-hour car wash is not an every-day job. It has become a social hotspot for people.”
Mrs O’Neill said she and her husband moved next door to a car wash because that was what they could afford at the time.