McGregor Road residents Kellie Knight, Gertrude Watson, Lillian Dorning and Rebecca Higgins say their road is too narrow and want the Cardinia Shire Council to allow them to park somewhere safer after some residents were fined for parking on nature strips. Picture: Luke Plummer.By Melissa Grant
RESIDENTS living on McGregor Road, Pakenham, say they are unfairly being slapped with fines for parking on their nature strips because they have nowhere else to park.
They say the service road is too skinny to park on safely and want the council to stop fining them and their visitors unless a suitable alternative is found.
The residents have submitted a 70-signature petition to the council in a bid to resolve the situation.
McGregor Road resident Kellie Knight said it was extremely difficult to get past vehicles that were parked on the service lane.
“It’s a danger to get past with cars parked there,” she said.
Mrs Knight issued a challenge to council officers: “Stand on the corner of where a car is (parked) and see how comfortable you feel.”
When The News visited the site last week, angry residents got out the tape measure to calculate the width of the road.
The road was 4.4 metres wide, while there was a distance of 2.5 metres from the door of a parked car to the kerb.
Pauline Thompson said she had been fined after trying to give passing motorists more room to move.
“My wheels were just on the concrete and they booked me for it,” she said.
Ms Thompson said her partner Wayne Archer had also received a $66 fine for parking on their McGregor Road nature strip recently.
Gertrude Watson, who also lives on McGregor Road, said she didn’t like to make her visitors park on the road outside her house.
“My daughter parked at our house legally and when she got home I had to tell her how someone driving in a rush had backed into her car,” she said.
Six weeks ago residents received a letter informing them that council employees would patrol the area, but believe few other people living in Henty Park and Heritage Springs received them.
“Nearby residents with bigger roads don’t get fined,” Ms Thompson said.
Cardinia Shire Council general manager corporate services Neil Thorpe said it was illegal to park on nature strips as detailed in the Road Safety General Regulations 1999.
He said McGregor Road residents weren’t being singled out as the council received complaints on a daily basis in regard to vehicles parking on nature strips, requesting that the practice be policed.
“McGregor Road is not the only road being policed and council staff are progressively working through the municipality to encourage motorists not to park on nature strips,” he said.
“Parking on the service road does reduce the breadth of the road but also serves to slow the speed of the traffic.
“In addition, the practice of parking on nature strips causes extensive damage to these grassed areas particularly in the winter months and leads to mud being carried onto the road.”
But McGregor Road residents say the nature strips wouldn’t be used enough to cause such damage.
“As a general rule we don’t park on them,” Mrs Knight said.
“It wouldn’t be often that people would have to park their cars on a nature strip- it’s not like our whole street would be covered with cars on nature strips.”
