A WODONGA butchery which has already shut its doors during the latest round of High Street roadworks has put an expensive upgrade of the shop on hold after the scrapping of car parks in front of his business.
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The Butcher's Hook & Cleaver owner Rex McKay closed down in mid-February until the roadworks were completed with an interior renovation also planned.
But upon returning from an overseas holiday, Mr McKay has discovered the parking spaces he once had in front of the shop were gone and replaced by one disabled parking space, three taxi spots and a loading zone.
A furious Mr McKay said he couldn’t see the need for taxis or a loading zone in the area.
“We’re lucky to see one taxi per day. Why are they going to sit in that spot? There is nothing there,” he said.
“The parallel loading zone, where you could put three or four car parks, is not required as shops around where we are take our deliveries around the back.
“The money to do these works was given to council by the (federal) government for the people, but all of the businesses along here will suffer.
“It costs you a lot of money to renovate a shop and I’m not going to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars doing it up when this has happened.
“We will re-open and have to give it a try, but I can’t see how we can be successful if people can’t park there.”
Wodonga Council chief executive Patience Harrington said there would be 29 car parking spots in the section presently being upgraded with the addition of a pedestrian crossing aligning with McHargs Lane leading to Church Street.
“The council believes an attractive retail precinct that is accessible, safe and attractive will bring ongoing benefits to businesses in our CBD,” she said.
“This is not something that can be achieved overnight and it was only just more than five years ago that High Street was four lanes of traffic.
“Parking spaces increased from 20 to 33 when line-marking changed the street from parallel parking to two lanes of traffic and the presented angled parking arrangement.”
Ms Harrington said the addition of a loading zone was in response to feedback as not all existing and potential businesses had rear access for deliveries.
“A parallel disabled space allows for safe rear-loading of passengers and this is the only such space in High Street,” she said.
“It is necessary for these three features to be parallel so they are safe and useful.
“Having them located together means an efficient use of available space and minimises the net loss of car parks across this section of High Street from Elgin Boulevard to South Street.”
