Options for High St revamp

BELMONT traders are hopeful detailed designs for the controversial High St bike path project will reveal options that won’t impact carparking or trade along the popular stretch.

The City of Greater Geelong has come under fire from traders amid fear the $4.7 million TAC-funded Better Bike Connection project will strip the street of a number of carparks.

A petition calling on council to develop two alternative cycling routes for the western end of the project has so far garnered 2300 signatures.

This week council announced it would reveal four potential design options for the High St section of the project for the community to provide feedback on.

Acting Mayor Cr Peter Murrihy said an independent consultant had taken community feedback heard during the initial engagement, including traders’ concerns about parking, into account when designing the alternative options.

“This is a major project for Geelong so we really want to hear from as many people as we can when consultation begins later this month,” Cr Murrihy said.

“We want to work with the whole community to develop the best possible design for High St that caters for traders, residents, shoppers, drivers and cyclists.”

Consultation will begin with two information sessions for High St business owners, traders and landlords on Monday, July 30.

This will be followed by several weeks of engagement with the broader community, which will include a community survey. The survey will be open from July 31 until September 7.

There will also be one-onone follow-up discussions offered to traders and a booth set up out the front of the Belmont Library where community members can ask questions.

“We have listened to the community’s initial feedback — including traders’ concerns about parking — and have made sure that this has been incorporated into the potential design options that will be presented,” Cr Murrihy said.

High St trader Vincent Albanese said traders were hopeful the alternative options would take traders’ concerns into consideration.

“We don’t 100 per cent know if it will solve problems, but it does sound promising,” Mr Albanese said. ‘There’s an opportunity to do up the street and have a bike path. But we can’t have a bike path and say ‘stuff the elderly, stuff the trad- ers’ and get rid of parking for a minority group.”

But Moorabool St traders, who strongly oppose a section of the southern route running from central Geelong to Waurn Ponds, remain concerned that they are not re- ceiving the same treatment.

APCO service station director Peter Anderson said traders had funded an independent engineer to develop two alternative routes but council rejected the alternatives.

Council director of city ser- vices Guy Wilson-Browne said Moorabool St was selected as a strategic cycling corridor as part of a statewide process because it met key criteria including safety, connection to destinations and consistency with transport planning.

“We have been working with the Moorabool St traders to help address concerns,” Mr Wilson-Browne said.

Council is planning to allay parking concerns by offsetting carpark losses with new spaces in nearby streets.

“... we can’t have a bike path and say ‘stuff the elderly, stuff the traders’ and get rid of parking for a minority group.”

JOKER SHOPPE OWNER VINCENT ALBANESE