Chadstone must fix ‘horrendous’ carparking say angry shoppers

DRIVERS waiting more than an hour to get out of Chadstone shopping centre or to find a parking space say they are furious at the time they are wasting and that the problems will only get worse as Christmas approaches.

Shoppers say poor car park signage is contributing to unacceptable delays at Chadstone Shopping Centre. Picture: Mark Wilson

ANGRY shoppers say Chadstone shopping centre must greatly improve its parking before the Christmas rush after drivers faced hour-long delays to find a park and leave the complex.

Andrew James, of South Yarra, told the Monash Leader he waited more than an hour to exit the multi-level carpark near Myer on Saturday.

“Their parking situation is horrendous. They need to completely redesign their carpark and have better signage,” Mr James said.

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He said shoppers were confused and felt like they were driving around a maze.

“One lady pulled down her window and said she had been circling the carpark for 42 minutes,” he said.

“The centre needs more traffic management workers because I only saw one and he was extremely flustered.”

Samantha Perera, of Malvern East, said she was frustrated after waiting more than an hour to leave the same carpark.

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Chadstone shopping centre has been slammed by drivers who say it can take more than an hour to find a car park space or to leave the complex. Picture: Mark Wilson

“It was absolute chaos — there were people getting out of cars and tooting their horns,” Ms Perera said.

Part of the chaos was due to lack of space in the carpark, she said.

“There’s barely any room for cars to reverse out and there’s other cars driving in the opposite direction and this creates a huge bottleneck,” she said.

“I hope they can fix their carparks immediately, especially with Christmas approaching.”

A Chadstone spokesman, who refused to be named, said the centre had experienced another busy weekend which, combined with poor weather, might have made it more difficult for some customers to find a carpark.

“Following recommendations by specialist traffic engineers, we recently made some directional changes to some areas of our carpark to create a better flow of traffic,” the spokesman said.

He said as part of the upgrades the centre introduced necessary signage to help shoppers navigate their way.

“We understand there may still be some confusion and we’re in the process of installing additional signage to ensure its clearer for our visitors,” he said.