Increased enforcement not the answer - Wallace

A councillor has criticised increased parking enforcement recommended in parking studies for Drouin, Yarragon and Trafalgar.

Cr Darren Wallace declared “parking enforcement should always come as an absolute last resort” when the report was presented to Baw Baw Shire last week.

Despite questioning if parking issues even existed in Yarragon or Trafalgar, Cr Wallace voted to adopt the three studies as part of an unanimous councillor vote.

An officer report to council said the parking studies, initiated in 2022, reviewed existing parking arrangements and identified areas needing improvement.

They also aimed to understand current and future needs and provide effective parking for residents, commuters, business owners and visitors.

The report said 67 community responses were received, with 36 relating to Drouin, 18 to Yarragon and 13 to Trafalgar.

“Only minor changes have been made in finalising the parking studies reports,” the officer’s report stated.

“The overstay of vehicles was identified as a key issue across all three townships.

“To ensure adequate turnover and improved utilisation of parking spaces, council will need to explore a combination of options including additional enforcement resources or programs, community education and replacement of parking restriction signage.

As well as signage improvements, the reports also recommend reconstruction of Campbell St, Yarragon and improvement of the Woolworths carpark in Drouin through line marking changes.

Cr Keith Cook said community consultation was “quite high”.

He said community submissions for Drouin included requests for additional parking and removal of pedestrian crossings, concerns over time restrictions and staff parking spaces near Civic Park.

He supported changing parking limits to one hour in the main street, in line with Warragul.

Cr Michael Leaney said the three studies were extensive and very thorough.

“Carparking in any town is always a challenge,” Cr Leaney said. “No matter what we do, we are always going to have challenges with carparking, especially in a growing community.”

“The reality is the centre of our towns were never probably designed for the volume of people we have here today.”

Speaking on Yarragon and Trafalgar studies, Cr Wallace questioned “is there even a parking issue in both of these towns?”.

“Improved signage and better line marking, plus some long parking bays, is all that’s required,” he said.

He said peak period data showed Trafalgar had a highest occupancy rate of 36 per cent on Friday lunchtimes and Yarragon had 47 per cent on Wednesday and Friday lunchtimes.

Cr Wallace agreed with recommendations of improved signage to help travellers locate carparks behind shops and “common sense” line marking in Campbell St.

However, he raised concern over increasing parking enforcement, noting objections to it during public consultation.