Orange City Council wants to create more parking areas near the Orange Health Service.
DESPITE laying the blame squarely on the Orange Health Service, Orange City Council will move to set up a meeting between the owners of the former drive-in site and the health department in a bid to create another car park.
Orange councillors agreed to remove no-stopping zones from in front of the Orange Health Service to free up more parking spaces along Forest Road.
While traffic committee chair Cr Russell Turner said it was not a good solution, he said removing the signs was the only option until the hospital provided more parking.
“It’s the Orange Health Service’s problem, not ours,” he said.
“We’re not policing it and the police aren’t policing it.”
Cr Turner said everyone, including the owners of the drive-in site, had turned a blind eye to illegal parking opposite the hospital.
He was one of many councillors at Tuesday’s meeting who said they had visited the health service during the week to see the parking problems firsthand.
Cr Reg Kidd said council should set up a meeting between the health service and the site’s owners before the second linear accelerator brings more patients to the hospital.
Cr Chris Gryllis told the Central Western Daily he had spoken to the chief executive officer of the company who owned the former drive-in who was willing to work with council.
He said issues preventing the drive-in being a car park, such as pedestrian access, could be resolved.
“I don’t think it would have to go into a great deal of expenditure,” he said.
“The grounds were used for that purpose prior to that... most of all it needs a bit of a clean-up and some TLC.”
clare.colley@fairfaxmedia.com.au