Councillors Romola Hollywood and Annette Bennett are calling for the traffic and pedestrian safety improvements identified in the Hazelbrook master plan to be implemented.
Following an accident earlier this year, Cr Bennett asked for a report on ways to better protect pedestrians and shop owners from vehicles encroaching onto the narrow eastern footpath at the Hazelbrook shopping centre.
“I moved for the council to look at ways to prevent vehicles crashing onto the footpath and into shops after people told me that the accident was not an isolated incident,” Cr Bennett said. “We need to act sooner rather than later to address these ongoing safety issues at Hazelbrook shops.”
The follow-up report confirmed that the Hazelbrook master plan lists a range of measures designed to improve pedestrian and driver safety in the car park.
The proposed improvements include widening the footpath on the eastern side of the car park, installing balustrades/bollards to separate vehicle and pedestrian areas, creating stamped thresholds at the entry to the car park to signal that the area is a shared zone, and making the car park one way access in from the Great Western Highway.
The plan was adopted by council in 2014 but so far only changes to the parking restrictions in the upper car park have been implemented because no funding has been attached to the plan.
Crs Hollywood and Bennett have now called for any savings in this financial year from ward 2 projects to be directed towards improving safety at Hazelbrook. They also want funding for safety improvements to be included in the council’s next budget round for 2017-2018.
“With the accident earlier this year and given daily reports of near misses, addressing the safety issues in the Hazelbrook car park is a clear priority for our community,” said Cr Hollywood.
“People agree that the best way to make the car park safer is to change it to one way. Then the eastern footpath could be widened which would improve safety for pedestrians and drivers.”
