By NOEL MURPHY
A TYRE-slashing “maniac” has staff terrified at the McKellar Centre as a long-running car parking wrangle with Barwon Health remains unresolved.
Workers unwilling to pay new parking fees of up to $1000 a year are forced to leave their cars on Ballarat Road or further afield, walking hundreds of metres in the dark late at night when their shifts finish.
Barwon Health has refused to drop the new user-pay fees while City Hall has instituted permits and time limits to control McKellar staff parking outside the aged care precinct.
But staff told the Independent slashing of cars tyres over the past week has alarmed McKellar workers.
“A lot of nurses, some of them quite young, along with kitchen and domestic staff, are scared there might be some maniac out there with a knife when they go to their cars,” one nurse, speaking on condition of anonymity, said.
“People have had their tyres slashed, one woman found fish guts left all around her car, others have been abused by residents.”
Geelong MP Ian Trezise said staff parking along Ballarat Road was a “tragic accident waiting to happen” just like the well-known TAC TV advertisement in which a man is killed when he opens his driver’s door on the side of a busy road.
“The day it happens is the day they’ll fix it up and that will be a day too late,” he said.
Mr Trezise said the Bracks/Brumby Government spent $100 million upgrading the McKellar Centre without any expectation of staff paying.
“Not once did we expect employees to have to dip into their pockets to pay for infrastructure and now Barwon Health is hitting them $40 a week to do up the car park,” he said.
“I’ve raised this in Parliament, I’ve called on David Davis to fund Barwon Health appropriately so it can fund it without falling back on hard-working, dedicated employees.”
Barwon Health said it was looking at better lighting and CCTV coverage and working with authorities to better delineate the verge/shoulder along Ballarat Road. Shuttle arrangements were available for staff at end of shift and other times if required.
“Staff have to ask for it, though. We’re more than happy to assist but it’s hard if they don’t approach us, chief financial officer Dale Fraser said.
Mr Fraser said that despite regular forums and mail-outs to make staff aware, the shuttle take-up had been low, with only 100 using it for the whole of June, little more than three a day.
He said Barwon Health was happy with government funding but growing needs and infrastructure repairs and replacement had necessitated substantial investment in McKellar Centre car parking.
