ORANGE residents need to change their expectations of always finding a car park right outside the building they are visiting and accept walking an extra 100 metres, according to traffic committee chair Cr Russell Turner.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
A block of McNamara Street between Moulder and Kite Street will be the latest central business district street to have timed parking introduced in a bid to ease the squeeze on parking created by several new businesses in the area.
Cr Turner said businesses were approached about options to improve parking and the committee had reached a “reasonable compromise” of two-hour parking zone on one side of McNamara Street and one-hour parking on the opposite side.
“We consulted all the businesses and each had different proposals,” he said.
“There was a mixture from four-hours, to two-hours, to no-limit [parking].
Although new businesses in Moulder Street/McNamara Lane area had put more pressure on parking, Cr Turner said the committee believed traffic remained within the guidelines and there were no plans for timed parking in Moulder Street.
Talk of restricting some all-day parking spaces in the Ophir car park to one and two-hour time limits, freeing up spaces for Service NSW customers, were yet to be discussed formally, Cr Turner said.
“If you can’t park outside the building, it’s a reasonable expectation you might have to walk 50 metres or 100 metres ... we’re still a country town in that people have that expectation they can park outside the building, and that has to change over time"
He does not believe the shorter time limits need to be considered yet.
“Everyone accessing the service says once you get in the building it’s quick... so there’s a turnover of car parks,” he said.
“We can’t solve all the problems all the time.”
In the meantime, he hopes community expectations change.
“If you can’t park outside the building, it’s a reasonable expectation you might have to walk 50 metres or 100 metres,” Cr Turner said.
“We’re still a country town in that people have that expectation they can park outside the building, and that has to change over time.”
The traffic committee has also discussed heavy vehicle traffic in Moulder Street and resolved for the council to continue to monitor the numbers.
But Cr Turner said there were no plans to ban trucks from the residential street.
“It’s seen as one of the main east/west thoroughfares,” he said. “If we are going to ban them we’d have to work out where we are putting them, we don’t want them going down Kite Street.”
