Halt not ”enough”

Jane Emerick
A TEMPORARY halt to paidparking at Torquay surf beaches or exemptions for residents are “not good enough”, according to the town’s tourism and traders association.
President David Muir said his organisation wanted the plans scrapped, fearing damage to the businesses of association members.
Great Ocean Road Coast Committee this week announced it had put on hold its proposal for parking meters at Torquay, Jan Juc and Anglesea surf beaches to seek “community engagement” on the plan.
The Independent reported last week that State Government had told the committee it would not win the Government’s approval for the meters without community consultation.
Residents had attacked the plan, criticising the committee for failing to consult them before announcing it would install the meters.
In a statement this week, the committee said it would return to the meters plan if community consultation did not yield other longterm sources of funding.
Mr Muir criticised the announcement as vague.
“While we welcome the halt of this runaway train of paid parking, it really is just words,” Mr Muir said.
“When are these forums going to be set up? There’s still a lot of missing information.”
Mr Muir said the committee and State Government had failed to recognise particular problems for Torquay businesses from paid parking.
Suggested exemptions for residents would do nothing to help traders, he said.
“Paid parking might not stop people coming to Torquay but it will stop them coming back,” Mr Muir said.
“It’s ludicrous. On one hand the state is allocating money to support tourism and improving roads so people can easily drive here and on the other hand it’s penalising people driving here by making them pay to go to the beach."