Glebe faces more parking problems

BY ALEXANDRA BEECH
Parking officers are booking potential customers on Glebe Point Road, which is making it even harder for local businesses to survive the road’s ongoing upgrade.
Shopkeepers need time to recover from a lack of customers during the upgrade, said President of the Glebe Chamber of Commerce Paul Angell.
“There needs to be a pragmatic sort of approach to how we begin to heal after this upgrade and nailing us with wall-to-wall parking police is not the way to bring people back to Glebe,” Mr Angell said.
Mr Angell said damage from the roadworks had been minimised and businesses would soon see benefits if poor management of parking and traffic did not get in the way.
“The one thing that can make this all come unstuck is the parking and traffic management, and if we don’t get a handle on that within the next month or two there’ll be long-term problems,” he said.
But a City of Sydney spokesman said the parking rangers would benefit shopkeepers.
“Now that substantial work has been completed, city rangers are assisting local business and residents by enforcing parking restrictions as they do in all other parts of the local government area.”
A new set of offices, Valhalla, could cause more problems due to the reduction in parking spaces after the upgrade.
“I’ve counted the letterboxes there and there are about 40 offices’ they didn’t actually put in any provision for parking,” Glebe resident Joe Palmer said.
Greens councillor Chris Harris said council needs to help traders get through a difficult period instead of making things worse.
“It’s a tough sort of message to send to businesses up there that well we’re going to send the parking cops up there to book everybody. Maybe the City should be spending resources getting the thing finished more quickly,” Cr Harris said.
British Sweets and Treats on Glebe Point Road experienced a 50 per cent drop in trade and had to cut hours dramatically. Manager Andy Adams said it was still taking time for customers to return.
“I get loads of phone calls from even customers now saying: ‘What’s the parking like today; is it worth me coming” cause they just came down’ and just carried on driving. They just couldn’t park,” Mr Adams said.