By Luke Voogt
Stunned traders vented their fury as Geelong’s council again shut Malop Street to traffic on Thursday, three months after reopening the road.
The last two-month closure cost Geelong Timezone tens of thousands of dollars, according to managing director Sebastian Loader.
“The irony is I got my rates notice in the middle of all this for $20,000 – I reckon they’ve taken at least that off my top line,” he said.
The business relied heavily on free parking in Malop Street after 5.30pm, which the previous closure denied to customers, Mr Loader explained.
“Our industry is in a boom time at the moment and it’s certainly been a handbrake on our growth.”
Mr Loader described the latest works as unnecessary and believed local businesses deserved compensation.
“We had foot traffic – it wasn’t broken,” he said. “(The City) might say there was consultation with us but there was no consultation.“
“For what they are spending on this they could have a tram from here to Eastern Park.”
Mr Loader suggested City Hall bureaucrats were more concerned “about their resumes” than fixing “real problems” like the Moorabool Street bus interchange or the infamous Little Malop Street Mall.
“I’ve been here 20 years and it’s the third group of people that have put their stamp on this street,” he said.
“Our concern is that they are not worried about the CBD but that they are concerned about their next job.”
He urged locals to keep shopping in the street. “We’re still here,“ he said.
Emily Hutchison, who owns clothing shop Hutch Store, said she just wanted the works “over and done with”.
“We had some days (during the closure) last year where people just didn’t come into the store,” she said.
“You can’t rush (this) kind of thing but we would have liked it done sooner.”
Halong Cafe owner Kim Duong said the previous closure had been tough on her business.
“There was nobody walking past – people don’t want to go into a construction zone to shop.”
But City Hall investment and attraction director Brett Luxford touted the latest works as a “historic rebuild”.
“This work will provide a new lease of life for Malop Street – one of Geelong’s oldest thoroughfares,” Mr Luxford said.
“I encourage the community to continue to shop and do business during the construction. You might also get a glimpse of history in the making.”
Resurfacing and patching of Malop Street since the road’s first sealing in 1944 had raised the surface up to 60cm in some parts, Mr Luxford said.
“We are basically having to pull off years of band aids and rebuild the road from scratch.”
The latest works will see Molap Street closed to road traffic from Moorabool Street to Yarra Street until the middle of this year.
The latest two works cost ratepayers and taxpayers $8 million and are part of the City’s Green Spine project to connect Johnstone Park to Eastern Park through a linear garden.
“There’s nothing like it anywhere else in Australia,” Mr Luxford said.
