Squeezed out: Ernie Thompson and Moya Hughes inspect the parking situation in central Portarlington.
KIM WATERS
A STREETSCAPE upgrade has produced a “parking shemozzle” in central Portarlington, according to residents.
Portarlington Seniors Centre secretary Moya Hughes blamed council’s streetscape design for a “hopeless” lack of parking.
Ms Hughes said the town’s shopping area lost almost 30 car parks in the past year.
“The centre of town is now inaccessible,” she said.
“The streetscape works were meant to draw people in but they’ve done the complete opposite.
“There are a lot of elderly people who live in Portarlington and they can’t walk all the way down the back lanes just to get to the shopping centre.”
Ms Hughes said residents had formed a committee to push for an upgrade to the seniors centre car park.
“At the moment it’s just a huge mud pit with pot holes and when it rains the car park floods,” she said.
“If it was cemented properly we’d have maybe 55 more car parks for people not only using the centre but also shopping in town.”
Ms Hughes said the loss of parking had forced some residents to shop at Drysdale.
“I go to Drysdale and think to myself ‘Why try fighting for a car park in Portarlington when the shops here are so accessible’.
“We try to support the local businesses but when it’s impossible to get a park close by and you’re unable to lug groceries miles to your car there’s not much you can do.”
Portarlington’s Pamela Edwards said finding a park close to the town’s shops was now “impossible”.
Council knocked back a request to seal the seniors centre car park two years ago, she said.
“It’s just a rough hole and a mud heap, so there’s no point parking there. At least if we got it properly sealed it would offer a replacement for the 20 to 30 parks we’ve lost in the streetscape works.”
City of Greater Geelong’s Scott Cavanagh said the streetscape upgrade removed 26 parks.
But the City predicted a “net gain” of seven spaces in the town centre and 33 extra parks from the redevelopment of Brown and Harding streets, he said.
Mr Cavanagh said the City had no plans to seal the Senior Citizens Centre car park.
