Clearway ‘will hurt local traders’

NEWS


City Council plans to make Ann Street a seven-days-a-week daytime clearway through Fortitude Valley will hit local traders hard, the local councillor and business chamber believe.

In a 16 June letter to local business owners and traders, the council said it wanted the permanent clearway introduced to “reduce congestion and delays in Ann Street on weekends for traffic including buses”.
“It is anticipated that the changes to the clearway times will be undertaken by the end of July 2010.” Ann Street, which is one-way inbound through the inner-north, has had a permanent daytime clearway on its left side to help traffic turn left into Brunswick Street.
But the right hand side has been a clearway only between 7am and 7pm on weekdays, and it’s the extension of this to the weekends that will affect traders, according to local councillor David Hinchliffe (Central Ward) and the Fortitude Valley Chamber of Commerce.
Local traders in recent months have pleaded with council to police a two-hour weekend limit to help keep their customer numbers up and prevent weekend Valley malls stallowners and shoppers parking there for many hours, especially seeing council has admitted it no longer policies the two-hour rule.
Some traders would have even accepted parking meters as a solution to achieving a regular turnover of motorists – and potential customers – in the area.
Cr Hinchliffe said of the council letter: “This does not sound like a consultation process. They’ve made a decision and said ‘lump it’. “Council should have consulted genuinely with property owners and traders instead of just announcing that a clearway will be installed in a month’s time. That’s not cons
ultation. This will hit traders hard from the Emporium through to the Valley Heart.” Valley Chamber of Commerce CEO Carol Gordon said: “Why this is happening when the new [Clem7] tunnel and Inner City ByPass are suppose to reduce through traffic in the heart of the Valley.
“The chamber does expect BCC to continue to support the ‘day economy’ in the Valley yet they are taking away what little parking there is in the Valley at the very time it is most needed.
“It would appear BCC has not even considering putting in parking metres as an option – if they have, who did they consult? “The retail and other businesses in Ann Street between Montpelier Road and the heart of the Valley when this is introduced will just be able to wave goodbye to the people who will now just drive by at 60km a hour.”
Council in its letter to locals earlier this month said its review had identified that peak weekend traffic volumes were only 20 per cent less than weekday peak volumes. Parking at the weekends also reduced Ann Street to only two free-flowing lanes, and bus travel times down Ann Street during peak times increased from under three minutes on weekdays to more than seven minutes on Saturday.
Councillor Hinchliffe showed The Independent photos he had taken of Ann Street on the weekends and argued they showed that traffic congestion was not a problem at busy times over the weekend.