Out of site: Borough of Queenscliffe planning and infrastructure general manager Phil Josipovic on the site earmarked for additional car parking.
MICHELLE HERBISON
QUEENSCLIFF’S ferry operator has come under attack from environmentalists over plans for 130 extra car parks and upgraded walking paths.
Council and authorities have backed the Searoad Ferries plan but Queenscliff Environmental Forum has described it as a privatisation of foreshore land.
Planning Minister Matthew Guy has agreed to display proposed rezonings for the plans, including amending an environmental significance overlay and rezoning public conservation, resource and public park areas as special use zones.
Searoad Ferries general manager Matt McDonald said turning the reclaimed land into a car park would solve the business’s “existing nightmare” with parking.
The ferry service only had about 10 “formal parking spaces”, he said.
Mr McDonald revealed that Searoad Ferries received regular complaints from customers being unable to find parks or becoming bogged after parking on sand.
“For too long the people of Queenscliff, commuters and locals have had to persevere with inadequate and degraded parking facilities,” he said.
“The new car park will provide easy access for the disabled and will include provisions for the public bus route to be extended to the ferry terminal as well.”
A Searoad Ferries statement said the original parking design and facilities were “grossly inadequate to deal with growth in vehicle traffic without a designated traffic flow”.
Borough of Queenscliffe Mayor Bob Merriman said the area “desperately” needed additional parking due to increased ferry patronage.
The borough had Environmental Protection Agency approval to use the proposed land for parking, he said.
“It’s not protected in any way. It’s all reclaimed land that used to be a swimming area but since the ferry terminal started the whole area has been built up with sand.”
Queenscliff Environment Forum chairperson David Kenwood was concerned about impacts on conservation values and open space.
“Queenscliff has a magnificent strip of coastline and some of the best beaches on the Bellarine Peninsula. To privatise more foreshore for coastal car-parking in a tourist area doesn’t make sense for locals and tourists.”
Mr Kenwood said asphalting the area would impact on seabirds and vegetation.
“It will mean permanent loss of an area of Queenscliff’s foreshore that is well-used.”
Mr Kenwood said “hundreds” of car parks were available in and around the harbour.
Queenscliff Harbour and Searoad Ferries should “share the space more effectively”, he said.
