Wyndham council has delayed the release of its much-anticipated Werribee city centre parking strategy, which was originally scheduled to be tabled at its July meeting last week.
Wyndham advocacy director Bill Forrest said the strategy’s release had been postponed until this month’s council meeting “to allow time for preparations to be put in place for public exhibition and community consultation immediately after the meeting”.
The postponement comes after a Star Weekly story revealed the council had slugged drivers more than $1.1 million in parking fines in the past year – nearly double the amount of the previous 12 months.
The council has also had a moratorium on granting new business parking permits in Werribee’s CBD since February, meaning employees without permits must move their cars every couple of hours or risk being fined.
Mary, who works in an office on Watton Street, said the council had put full-time employees in Werribee’s CBD in an untenable position by not offering all-day parking solutions.
“Where are we meant to park if we work in the main street of Werribee? There’s no allocated parking for us,” she said. “Do they expect us to park in a residential area where we’ve got to walk a long distance? What happens at night when it’s dark? It’s a safety issue.”
Mary said the council had been promising a multi-storey car park since she began working in the area 15 years ago, and she wondered why the council had yet to take action.
“Everyone who works in the street [is] … sick of having to move their cars all the time. It interrupts your work,” she said.
The postponement comes after a Nick Christou, who co-owns the Park Hotel on Watton Street, said the parking permit moratorium had made it even more difficult for business owners and their employees to park in Werribee CBD without getting fined.
