Chadstone Shopping Centre: shopper furious over parking ‘chaos’

A CHADSTONE customer is furious with the shopping centre’s management after she claims shoppers were directed to a dark, gridlocked area of the carpark on Saturday night — with dramatic consequences.

The Chadstone Shopping Centre carpark has been labelled chaotic and a “major safety hazard” after shoppers were directed to a dark, gridlocked area.

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One car crashed into a parked car amid the confusion, according to customer Julie Tullberg.

She is calling for improvements at the centre after attending an event on Saturday night and witnessing the crash.

Arrows directed the Chadstone resident and her husband to the upper deck outside Hoyts, saying there were “170 spaces available”.

But the carpark was already full and cars were aimlessly driving in the dark.

“There was no lighting and it was difficult to negotiate the gridlock,” Ms Tullberg said.

“As I was exiting the level, a car crashed into a parked car on a tight corner and it was a shambles, as bystanders came to help the driver locked in a car wrap.”

After she found a park on a lower level, Ms Tullberg called centre management to warn them, but says “the chaos continued”.

“I suggested to management they turn off the arrows and their invitation to drive on to the dark gridlock above (but) this did not happen,” she said.

“This is a major safety hazard and it should be stopped,” she said.

Chadstone’s Centre Manager Michael Whitehead said the centre was made aware that the roof top mast lighting in the car park in question had not turned on.

He said a maintenance team witched them on manually by 6.50pm.

“Unfortunately, we also experienced an issue with our Park Assist system on Saturday evening which may have been directing our customers to areas that were already full,” he said.

“We alerted Park Assist to the problem and they have been working to identify the possible fault to ensure it doesn’t happen again. However, we haven’t experienced any issues with the system over the past few days.”

He said the Magic at Twilight event led to a busy extended trade period.

Mr Whitehead said the centre apologises to anyone affected by the fault for the inconvenience.

The news comes after last month’s announcement that the carpark will be expanded to make way for 42 new spaces on the ground level.

Two access points will also be reconfigured to ease traffic congestion.

Stonnington Council gave the shopping centre the go ahead to expand the Coles carpark in March, with plans also earmarking a pedestrian walkway and more car spaces for parents with prams.

Shoppers spent nearly $2 billion at the centre last year, making it the highest-turnover shopping centre in the country.