Parking limits- The Tooradin Commerce Committee is calling for the introduction of timed parki

By Bridget Brady
IT’S time for timed parking in Tooradin, traders say.
As the business community in the coastal town develops, traders say there need to be parking restrictions in the main street to prevent cars from sitting there all day.
Tooradin Commerce Committee president Colin Butler said some motorists used the spots in front of shops as all day parking because, apart from a few parking spots, there were no restrictions in Tooradin.
“Tooradin is getting so busy now that we need cars to be moving on,” Mr Butler said.
“Traders need every spot they can get to enable the people that are coming to their business to actually get a park.”
Casey Council will review the parking along the service roads in the main street of Tooradin.
Owner of Tooradin News, Dianne Loft, said the parking problem had escalated in the past 18 months as the town grew.
Ms Loft said commuters parked their cars in spots and jumped on the V/Line bus, leaving their cars there all day- because they could.
“It isn’t conducive for people popping in for five minutes,” she said.
The lack of parking restrictions meant new shoppers or people who passed through might not bother to stop in Tooradin if they could not find a park, Ms Loft said.
She also flagged the idea of setting up designated areas for big vehicles or people with caravans and trailers to park to accommodate the holidaymakers who stopped in the town.
Balla Balla Ward councillor Geoff Ablett said he supported traders and the need for consistency in relation to parking in Tooradin.