Page 2377 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 5 August 2015
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From these responses, it is clear that the ACT government’s decision to close this car park will have an adverse impact on the patients who regularly use the Melbourne Building car park to access their medical or health professionals. More tellingly, at no point in the EIS is it considered what business impacts will be expected to flow from this decision. For example, there is seemingly no consideration of the health and medical services along London Circuit and the fact that patients of these practices need close and accessible parking. Were the authors of the EIS even aware that the ACT government was planning to extend the hours of pay parking in the last budget? Or is it like so many other government decisions—they are all done in isolation and never actually treated as an entire policy suite?
The EIS indicates that other parking options are available for those who would utilise the Melbourne Building car park. They include nearby privately operated car parks, as well as the parking spaces at the Canberra Centre. So the government’s response is that people who would otherwise park in the Melbourne Building car park should park perhaps 750 metres or a kilometre away at the Canberra Centre. It is no wonder that so many concerned businesses have expressed their views on this issue. It is simply not feasible for many, given their health and other conditions, to walk that far. In response to the EIS a general practitioner wrote:
To suggest that business employees and, in particular, customers park in Marcus Clarke Street, City West Car Park or Canberra Centre is unacceptable and inconsiderate. Many customers and clients are elderly and to force them to walk a fair distance and at night to obtain a car park will only cause them to go elsewhere leaving my tenants with lost patronage and the prospect of possibly having to close their business.
A look at the EIS also indicates that every car park on the inside of London Circuit is already at capacity during business hours. The closest accessible car park not currently at capacity is the City West car park on Marcus Clarke Street. Even so, this car park is currently at 80 per cent and has only approximately 150 car parking spaces. Remaining parking options then include areas at the ANU, elsewhere along Marcus Clarke Street, the north and south car parks on Constitution Avenue and Corranderrk Street, and the city centre. In my opinion none of these car park options are comparable to the existing parking arrangements near the courts and across the road from the Melbourne Building for people who need to visit that precinct.
What is also frustrating to business owners is the lack of consultation. As I mentioned earlier, the government had minimal, if any, consultation with affected businesses prior to the release of the EIS. One business owner wrote this in his submission to the government:
The first notice we received of these proposed plans was a story run in the news. Your report suggest that local business will be consulted with regards to these issues however, up until this point in time, we have received no contact from the ACT Government regarding proposals and we are very aware that other small businesses in the area relying on this parking for their trade, have also not been consulted.
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