Shopping centre parking fees turn surrounding streets into car parks

Frustrated residents living near one of Queensland’s biggest shopping centres say their streets are heavily congested and rubbish trucks have been forced to change their schedule after a controversial decision by centre management.

Carindale resident Allan Ladewig in front of his Modred Street house which has become a car park. Picture: AAP/Regi Varghese

RESIDENTS living near Westfield Carindale say their streets are heavily congested and rubbish trucks have been forced to change their schedule after a controversial decision by centre management to charge patrons for parking.

Garbage collection has changed to early morning to allow trucks access before commuters park out the narrow streets and homeowners fear emergency services will face the same issue with access.

The parking problem has become so bad Modred St residents pushed for a survey to introduce a five-hour parking restriction recently.

Council officers recommended a three-hour limit to address complaints of all-day parking.

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However, it wasn’t supported with 23 per cent of residents in favour and 73 per cent against.

Modred St homeowner Allan Ladewig said the survey was confusing and council did not appear to be interested in finding a solution.

He said parking problems started when Westfield introduced parking fees in 2012 and had become increasingly worse.

“When we moved here 32 years ago, our street was the quietest street in Carindale,” Mr Ladewig said.

“Now it has turned into a car park. It starts becoming a problem from 9am through to 5pm.

“The rubbish man has to come at 6am or he can’t get through later than that.

“The street is not built to be a car park.”

Modred St is so congested residents have difficulty backing out of driveways.

Mr Ladewig has sold his home after becoming frustrated with the congestion.

Councillor Ryan Murphy (Chandler) said council would not proceed with parking restriction at Modred St as the community did not support it but would continue to work with residents who were having difficulties accessing their properties to find solutions.

“This includes painting yellow lines to help their ingress and egress from the driveway, which appears to be the chief complaint,” he said.

Cr Ryan Murphy says he is looking at ways to address local residents’ concerns. Picture: AAP/Richard Walker

Council has implemented a range of parking restrictions around Carindale to deal with parking overflow from commuters and workers such as recent parking restrictions in Surbiton Court where residents supported the change with 68 per cent voting in favour.

Cr Murphy said there had been calls to introduce a residential parking permit scheme around Carindale.

“This would be a major change, and I don’t think there is community support for that at the moment. However, the situation continues to get worse every year,” he said.

He said lack of investment from the State Government in major public transport projects like the Eastern Busway was part of the problem.

“Instead of spreading the commuter parking load along Old Cleveland Rd, everyone is coming to Carindale. Our Park ’n Ride is full every day, and it’s only going to get worse.”