Craigieburn’s narrow streets feared dangerous in emergencies

Minutes can be the difference between life and death. Residents are demanding council stop fining people for parking on nature strips to allow emergency vehicles through narrow streets.

Angela Monar stands in a narrow street in Craigieburn, Picture: Andy Brownbill

A Craigieburn woman at risk of a deadly heart attack fears an ambulance won’t be able to fit through her neighbourhood’s narrow residential streets.

After suffering a heart attack earlier this year, Angela Monar was diagnosed with progressive heart disease and acute unstable angina.

Now, Ms Monar wants Hume Council to stop fining people who park on nature strips.

“In the last six month months I’ve had quite a few admissions to hospital and it’s vital that an ambulance get through the streets to me in time,” she said.

“I feel worried because minutes can make all the difference between life and death.”

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Ms Monar is among a growing group of frustrated neighbours calling on the council to let drivers park on nature strips to enable emergency services vehicles to fit through narrow streets.

The calls were initially sparked by a Facebook post shared by Craigieburn CFA, which urged drivers to leave enough space for firetrucks when parking in residential areas.

Angela Monar is worried ambulances won't be able to fit through narrow residential streets in Craigieburn. Picture: Andy Brownbill

Craigieburn CFA officer in charge David Maxwell said it was difficult for large firetrucks to fit through some streets, especially in Roxburgh Park and Craigieburn.

“When cars are parked opposite each other it makes it very hard for us to get past,” he said.

Roxburgh Park woman Elizabeth Scopacasa said Hume Council should be more lenient about fining people who park on nature strips, given it “allowed the narrow streets to be built in the suburbs in the first place”.

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Ms Monar agreed, blaming rapid development for poor street planning in Craigieburn.

“Residents do their best … but most houses in the new estates only have room to fit one car in their driveway and most families have two cars,” she said.

Hume councillor Joseph Haweil said residents were “effectively stuck between a rock and a hard place”.

“If they park legally — not on a kerb or nature strip — then emergency services vehicles and garbage trucks can’t get through,” he said.

“For a long time I’ve advocated that council should not stringently enforce the parking on nature strips regulations.

“If they’re patrolling the streets, for me that’s a revenue raiser — not a public safety thing.”

Hume Council’s sustainable infrastructure and services director Peter Waite said it was obliged to enforce Victorian road safety rules, which prohibit parking on footpaths and nature strips.

He said the council spent $400,000 each year on installing indented parking bays in the worst affected streets to help alleviate residents’ concerns.

Residents can report vehicles blocking streets to the council by phoning 9205 2200 or using the Hume City Council App.

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