Fw: Traffic in Macquarie Street / Regent Square - is there a SAFER place for the Hub?

While we continue to wait for the Traffic Impact Assessment to be delivered to the George Town Council – the clock is ticking!

 

Representations are due in next Tuesday 27 September, so how do we respond by then when we won't see it until Monday at the very earliest?

 

We hope the Planning consultant has seen first hand how busy George Town's main street is on most days of the week, from the first roundabout right down to Elizabeth Street.

 

There are rarely many parking spaces in the main street so the carparks on both sides of the Memorial Hall are well utilised. The eastern carpark is almost always fairly full as people access shops and services in that end of Macquarie St and the Online Access Centre and Library in the Memorial Hall – from that end of the town. 

 

Most of the traffic to the Jetty, the Pier Hotel, the Bass & Flinders Centre, the popular Yacht Club / Windmill Point  /  Belle's Tearooms area and to The Grove in Cimitiere St, must proceed down the main street to the Macquarie / Elizabeth St corner.

 

At present anyone proceeding down the main street who can't find a park, or needs to park for more than half an hour to visit businesses in the western end of Macquarie St (Chicken Feed, hairdressers, Freddie's and other stores, Miriam's or Mario's restaurants), or to visit the library and other activities in that side of the Memorial Hall, needs to drive around the Elizabeth St roundabout to enter the carpark to the west of the hall.

 

With the limited area for parking in the lower end of Elizabeth Street , the western end carpark is also used for the 'overflow' of traffic from here.

 

With all the extra services that will be relocated from the virtually new Community Health Centre (Hospital), the Council Chambers and from the Neighbourhood House and possibly Wattle Group, AND with a Bus Lay-by outside the Hub in Elizabeth St, this area could become very congested – and not very safe for lots of small children OR elderly people on walking frames, gophers, etc!   An accident waiting to happen? 

 

I'm told there was once a successful Childcare Centre in the old Graham Fairless complex (originally Comalco's Single Mens' Quarters) between Goulburn and Friend Sts – and the site was ideal, being very safe and away from traffic, etc, within easy walking distance for most parents and close to the Friend St Supermarket .

 

Is this area still owned by George Town Council?  What's happening there?

 

A member of the Local Enabling Group told us she felt this site would have been 'central' enough for the purposes of the Hub and there was certainly plenty of space there.

 

Do parents have a problem accessing our only Childcare Centre in Gordon Square? Or any of the three schools?