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18 - 31 DECEMBER, 2020
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BELLARINE’S NUMBER ONE NEWSPAPER
On patrol
(Justin Flynn)
Conservation regulator forest and wildlife officers such as Monique Cugliari and Rob Bendon (with Turtle the kelpie) will be patrolling local beaches this summer to help protect the endangered hooded plover. ■ Full story: Page 5
Terrace traffic fears By Justin Flynn Some traders on Ocean Grove’s main shopping street are concerned that recent changes allowing extra capacity for outdoor dining could drive people away. The traders fear traffic congestion will drive locals and tourists from The Terrace and to new shopping centres such as Kingston, Leopold and even Warralily. Earlier this month, City of Greater Geelong changed The Terrace to cater for 50 extra outdoor-dining seats. While no carparks were lost, the one-way street was made narrower. Some traders believe congestion and parking has already become worse even before the peak summer season arrives. Concerns have also been raised that the spaces provided for
outdoor dining have been underused. Ocean Grove Cellars’ Issac Fryar recalled his observations from last Saturday. “Saturday night I left at 8pm from Ocean Grove Cellars, having a look up and down the street, there was no one seated out the front of Driftwood and nobody using the new spaces,” he said. “There was no one using the spaces from the Thai restaurant, there was no one using that entire green strip. The only places that had a couple of tables out was the ice creamery, but no one was sitting in them. “They had no one out the front of the Italian (restaurant) – that was using the footpath, there were a couple using (from) the fish and chips (shop), Olive Pit was closed so there was no one using that space.
“And just out in front of the bank and the hair salon, no one was using that space because there are no restaurants there. You’d be better off using them for mini golf.” Peter Fryar, also from Ocean Grove Cellars, said he had experienced problems with loading zones. “There are guys coming in here with big long trailers and they can no longer pull up and get access to the bottle shop because they can’t pull up with the loader on the back like they used to,” he said. “We’ve lost the easy access to a lot of shops. We haven’t hit the holiday period yet. We’ve already had the Australia Post guy give up on us, he’s going to park around the back and just walk from now he said. “The disappointing thing is the areas aren’t
full. It’s like you’re sitting in the road. A couple of people have said to me ‘why would we want to sit in the middle of the road?’.” Beachside Blooms florist Shelley Coghill said she feared tourist dollars would end up at the nearby shopping centres. “I think people are going to go to the shopping centres instead,” she said. “It’s not so much the parking, it’s being able to get here in the first place. Traffic will be banked up like Barwon Heads. It will be like Barwon Heads. People will be so annoyed to get to the main street.” The changes will be in place for a period of three months. City of Greater Geelong said a review of the effectiveness of the initiative will be carried out in consultation with the traders and council will seek user feedback.
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