WTF: CBD parking nightmare, sludgy roads, sleepy town drama, plant-based civil disobedience

“Why would you ever travel to the CBD?”

WTF??

They’re the little – and sometimes not so little – things that can really irk us. We’ve asked the people of Geelong to point out the problems that irritate and exasperate and have us all saying, woah, that’s frustrating!

A space, the final frontier

Parking in central Geelong is not without its challenges. Picture: Peter Ristevski

A reader posed the Addy a question this week: “Why would you ever travel to the CBD?”

Well, our answer is simple, the office is here, but the story that he shared does make you think.

He said he paid for three hours of parking before heading to a tax seminar at the waterfront.

If that symposium wasn’t punishment enough, when he returned to move his car to a new space, the machine wouldn’t accept payment.

“Six times I tried without success, so I rang the mobile phone number clearly marked on the machine,” he said. “Disconnected.”

After speaking to a “lovely telephonist” from council’s head office, he was told that where he had originally parked was likely in the same parking zone anyway, and therefore he could not park there again, even in a different space.

“Why is their such a large exclusion zone? Why is there any exclusion zone?,” our frustrated parker asks.

“As nice as she was, there was no alternative but to move again, but without knowing the exclusion boundaries where was I to go?

“I decided Westfield was the answer and paid another $10 fee for the joy of visiting the CBD.

“As I walked back to my car, passing vacant waterfront shops, I just couldn’t help but think, ‘never has so much damage been caused by so few bureaucrats over such a prolonged period’.”

Muddy ridiculous and they’re not bluffing

St Leonards residents who are frustrated with council about the state of the roads in the Lower Bluff area of St Leonards. Picture: Mark Wilson

Roads, rates, rubbish.

The three R’s are a phrase you’ll start hearing more of this year as council elections ramp up.

And when it comes to the first of those Rs, St Leonards resident Sue Weymouth reckons the dirt roads in the Lower Bluff area could be some of the worst in the region.

“When it gets wet they get sloppy, when it’s dry it’s too dusty,” Ms Weymouth said.

“There aren’t footpaths, and I have an elderly neighbour who can’t get around when it gets wet.”

It isn’t a new issue, last year the Geelong Advertiser reported that residents had come together in a bid to get the council to fix roads, which they claimed were dangerous and damaging cars.

Residents Bruce Cook, Sue Weymouth and Nick Martin in Ord St part of the Lower Bluff Area Picture: Mark Wilson

What’s more, the road made an appearance in a list of the region’s worst potholes earlier this year.

City of Greater Geelong acting executive director of city infrastructure David Greaves said council had done a “lot of work over time to listen to residents’ concerns about these roads and present possible solutions”.

“Our surveys have found there are strongly varying opinions within the local community,” Mr Greaves said.

“A survey in 2022 saw more residents vote to ‘keep the roads as they are’ than for any other option presented.

“We continue to maintain the roads to the levels set out in our road management plan.”

Um, why is our town part of this?

David Collard appears in Manhattan Supreme Court in New York City. Photo by Jefferson Siegel

One of the region’s coastal communities has inadvertently been linked to the ongoing multi-agency federal probe into the tax affairs of former Geelong businessman David Collard.

The investigation, centred on allegations of tax fraud involving allegedly false research and development claims worth tens of millions of dollars, has been codenamed “Operation Queenscliff”.

An Australian Federal Police spokeswoman, when asked for an explanation, gave assurances that despite Collard’s local connection, there was no specific reason for the name and definitely no links to Queenscliff, the town.

That last part was underlined, just in case we missed it.

But one can’t help thinking that some of the friendly Borough folk must be more than a little miffed by the name.

Some might say “Operation New York” would have been more fitting, given that’s where Collard is understood to be living.

Although it’s not clear exactly where after civil court documents were lodged against the former St Joseph’s student a few months ago over claims he owed $208,000 in unpaid rent for swanky digs located nearby the Hudson River in the Hell’s Kitchen district.

Plant-based civil disobedience

WTF: The drooping plant

WTF: The “no drooping” sign right across from it.

While this column often details humans who are not doing the right thing, it’s safe to say we’ve never exposed greenery for breaking the rules. Until now, that is.

Yes, WTF’s intrepid investigators have found a rather amusing example of some plant-based civil disobedience. The striking hanging plant sits on Moorabool St in South Geelong, directly – and defiantly – across from a sign that suggests “no drooping”.

Well, it’s actually a no U-turn sign, but the visual contrast is one to bring a chuckle.

We’ll let the pictures and the video do the explaining.

Cone continues to camp in canopy

Spring

Winter

And while on plants, it’s been more than two months since this column revealed a traffic cone had found itself in the upper branches of a tree on Yarra St.

Well, we can report a change.

The cone is still there but it’s a little less lonely and getting a touch more shade as the leaves on the surrounding branches return for spring.

Perhaps it will enjoy a full four seasons in the canopy. Although, being Geelong, that could happen in just a single day.

Originally published as WTF: CBD parking nightmare, sludgy roads, sleepy town drama, plant-based civil disobedience