Councillors hope they can prevent the death of another pedestrian with road upgrades, even if it means losing 17 car parks in the CBD.
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They voted at Tuesday’s meeting to endorse a $1.41 million upgrade to Ovens Street, which would replace angle parking with parallel spaces, a median strip and a pedestrian crossing.
The council’s revised plan for King George V Gardens removed ideas for barbecue facilities and interactive art, and added in more lighting and seating.
Cr Harvey Benton said the plan was actually a safety issue itself and proposed an alternative motion to keep angle parking, but it was voted down 4-3 with support from only Crs Dave Fuller and Ruth Amery.
He said his motion would ideally remove the median strip, because he had seen ambulances on Murphy Street have to mount the median strip to avoid cars, and conceded some Ovens Street parking spaces would still be lost to install the pedestrian crossing.
“I have great difficulty with the emergency situation that arises in Wangaratta - we have a blockage for emergency services … I don’t want to see a fire truck held up trying to get across that area,” Cr Benton said.
“Everybody in this room tonight has come in, in a car and you’ve got to find somewhere to park.”
Cr Mark Currie said he was offended by a suggestion that no pedestrians had been injured on Ovens Street, because such a tragedy could happen anywhere.
Mother-of-three Roberta Brown, 53, was hit by a truck and died while walking her dog on Ryley Street in January.
“It could be anybody’s son, anybody’s child, at any point in time - I think that safety measures that have been put forward are good,” Cr Currie said.
“There are other options (for parking) out there.
“We’ve got to keep moving forward, beautify Wangaratta, make it good for the people who want to shop here and use that park.”
A revised concept design will be presented to the council before any works begin.
Cr Currie’s suggestion that more people use the multi-level car park was met with groans from the public gallery.
Cr Dean Rees said he could never remember a time where Murphy Street had been blocked due to issues with the median strip.
“Progress in Wangaratta has been slow, to put it politely,” he said.
“I feel further development in Ovens Street in front of the great Co Store premises that we have, which is one of our major retail outlets, will only improve.”