DANDENONG
dandenong.starcommunity.com.au
Tuesday, 21 February, 2023
/DandenongJournal
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‘Limbo’ over for refugees
Dandy fighter’s ‘next level’
Stalwart signs off in style
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SPORT
12496498-DL22-21
Danger from ‘idiot drivers’
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Trading barriers By Cam Lucadou-Wells Business owners next to a high-rise works site in Dandenong say their trade is being “destroyed” by works bollards and fences outside their stores. The owners of A1 Supermarket and Maihen Barber on Scott Street say builders cordoned off all of the on-street parking lots in front of their stores with little warning - and just before Christmas. The fences have remained, even while builder Promax had knocked off for weeks over the Christmas-New Year period. It is what Greater Dandenong councillor Jim Memeti called the “salt rubbed into the wound” at a 13 February council meeting. “This is their livelihoods. I really, really feel for them. “These people are going to go broke by the time it’s finished. If we don’t do nothing about it, they won’t have a business to go back to.” The bollards and fences were installed as part of works on The Lonsdale, a 15-storey apartment building at 27 Scott Street. According to builder Promax, the cordoned-off area is a “WorkSafe and union requirement”. It protects drivers, workers and pedestrians as its crane lifts 12-tonne concrete panels and formwork. A “horrified” A1 Supermarket owner Ali Hakimi says when the bollards went up - and while the worksite was idle - he missed out on trade during the “busiest time of year”. This included thousands of interstate and overseas visitors for the Afghan Football Festival. The supermarket is co-owned by two families of refugees from Afghanistan. It supports 13 family members in Dandenong as well as extended family stuck in Pakistan and Afghanistan. After weathering Covid shutdowns, Mr Hakimi says he wants the bollards gone or his business of six years won’t survive. His regular customers are shunning his
Greater Dandenong councillor Jim Memeti and small business owners Ali Hakimi and Ali Qalandari in the blocked-off parking bays. 319768 Picture: GARY SISSONS store, believing it is closed. Some say the nearest alternative parking is too far away, he says. “Every business has disabled parking. I don’t even have any car parking for my business. “My sales dropped significantly and I literally watch my six years of effort to build a business is melting like an ice cream. “How come an officer at council has issued a permit to someone without giving any regard to someone else’s life?” Ali Qalandari, who owns the 18-year-old Maihen Barber business next door, says little notice was given prior to the enclosure.
“Someone from Promax just threw a letter inside on the same day.” Cr Memeti says many cars had crashed into the bollards, which have narrowed the roadway. “There could be a fatality if we don’t do something about it.” He said Promax should instead use access from Robinson Street, where there was “plenty of room”. However, Promax chief operations officer Oz Girgin says the large adjoining rear car park in Robinson Street couldn’t be used for its crane due to high-voltage
overhead power lines. “It is a crane bay, which semi-trucks will pull into carrying large tilt panels, some are 12 tonnes heavy. “The crane will lift the concrete panels from this crane bay into site where they will be installed.” Semi-trucks were also too large to manoeuvre into the rear laneway. The bollards and screens went in on 19 December as an “immediate requirement” and as soon as permit approval was received, Mr Girgin says. Continued page 4
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