By Alesha Capone
Wyndham councillors have thrown their support behind the idea of constructing multi-storey carpark buildings, which would include supermarkets and day-care centres, to ease parking woes at local train stations.
At a council meeting last month, Cr Aaron An put forward a motion asking the council to write to the state government requesting the development of a set of guidelines on how public land around train stations could be better used.
Cr An said the motion could lead to public services and facilities being built near train stations, which would in turn help to resolve issues such as parking.
He said it was well-known that finding a carpark at Wyndham’s train stations, including Williams Landing station, was a struggle for commuters.
“The community have been asking for multi-storey carparking around that station for many years,” he said.
Cr Tony Hooper said public-private partnerships could be created to support the development of multi-storey carparks at Wyndham stations, with facilities such as supermarkets and day-care centres also incorporated into the design.
“Quite frankly, if I was a supermarket or daycare centre, that’s a captive market that I’d love to get involved in,” he said.
However, Cr Mia Shaw said that although Cr An’s motion was positive, it was “too open-ended” and would not lead to a tangible end-result for council.
Cr Shaw said that existing, undeveloped land around train stations was “minimal” and often privately-owned.
Cr Henry Barlow said that the council should be asking the state government to fulfil its election promise to build 1600 new and upgraded carparks at train stations in Melbourne’s west, including 500 spaces at Tarneit station.
“The parking’s been promised, so we should be putting the pressure back on the state government, to put in the promised extra carparking,” he said.
“We should be advocating on those election promises and holding the politicians to account.”
Cr Intaj Khan supported Cr An’s motion, but said the state government also needed to fund the proposed David Road train station.
