Morpeth's Trevor Richards has a message for CBD business people awaiting the result of Maitland City Council's parking study - don't hold your breath.
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Mr Richards said there had been study after study on increased parking in Morpeth over the years with little to no result so far.
"Maitland City Council loves doing reports and involving consultants who lap up the hundreds of thousands of ratepayers money," he said. "But they haven't done anything."
His comments come after council’s engineering and design manager Kevin Stein said community and parking survey information was currently being analysed to develop parking measures in Central Maitland.
"It really is very disappointing to see ratepayers rates being wasted time after time on studies which are never instigated," Mr Richards said.
"It would surprise me if Maitland’s parking study will ever be acted upon despite what Mr Stein says.
"Council will keep stalling them and then shelf the plans when people have forgotten about it."
Mr Richards said a report adopted by council in 2001 recommended that 276 car parks be created in Morpeth over a 10 year period.
Mr Stein said council adopted the Morpeth Management Plan (2000) with the parking component of the plan identifying strategies including maximising off-street parking by business, providing timed parking in Swan Street and unrestricted angle parking and evaluating of the Queens Wharf area for parking.
"These have been completed with the exception of Queens Wharf which is underway," he said.
He said in addition, the reconstruction of Swan Street between Tank and Northumberland Street has resulted in an increase of on-street car spaces by converting a number of parallel spaces to angle parking.
But Mr Richards disputes this.
He believes there is less public car spaces in Swan Street than there used to be and said the off-street parking by business was designed to be used by staff, not customers.
He said council had forced local businesses to put in their own private parking, but wasn't willing to come to the party and create more public car parks for visitors to match it.
He also pointed out the Queens Wharf component of the Morpeth Management Plan was unresolved almost 20 years after it was identified.
Mr Richards said there was no public off-street paraking in Morpeth and even the parking that was available on Swan Street was all timed differently.
Mr Stein said the current different timed parking in Morpeth catered for "flexibility and meeting the differing needs of the business and community groups such as locals and tourists".
Mr Richards believes the perfect location for a car park would be at a vacant block of land across from Campbell's Store.
To keep in line with the town's heritage appeal, he said the car park would need to be gravel and could be screened off with foliage.
Council have commenced the design for Stage 1 of Queens Wharf works, with investigation into land acquisition to accommodate expansion of Queen's Wharf including increased parking spaces.
But Mr Richards doesn't believe any progress will happen any time soon.
"I'm happy to see any extra car parking," he said.
"But council has always seen Morpeth as a threat to Maitland CBD, they're not willing to spend any money in Morpeth."