Perth Voice Interactive

RESIDENTS along Brisbane Street have just scraped in to get some traffic calming measures from Vincent council.

The residents had submitted a small petition to the council last month and included a survey of neighbours who’d got fed up with the near misses and congestion on the strip between Lake and Palmerston Streets.

The council’s engineers did a couple of weeks of traffic counting and determined that the Brisbane Street scored a 30 on their “traffic warrant” scale – the minimum before they’d consider any action.

Brisbane Street resident Matt Dowell organised the petition and praised the council’s engineering manager Luke McGuirk for coming up with some quick, low-cost solutions but has reservations about whether they’ll be enough.

“The current design of the road, particularly the narrowness, will continue to be a safety issue unless the road is widened or traffic volume is reduced and diverted to the main arterial roads such as Bulwer and Newcastle Streets,” Mr Dowell said.

“Should low-cost options not be enough, we request a longer-term plan be embedded in planning moving forward,” he said.

Council staff have recommended some signs and lines at this stage, with a report noting they’d already been fielding complaints from residents about the lack of parking on Brisbane Street.

“The demand on parking has increased due to the increasing density of developments in the area and with the proximity to the CBD,” a report to the council noted.

“As parking has increased, local residents have found a diminishing availability of parking adjacent to their properties and have contacted the City to address their concerns.

“The introduction of paid parking could be considered pending consultation with residents.

“This would ensure this section of Brisbane Street would be consistent with the current paid parking on Brisbane Street between Lake Street and Beaufort Street.”

Mayor Alison Xamon said it looked like there were a lot of out-of-towners clogging up the parking bays in the area and wanted to know who they were.

“I’m just trying to get an idea of whether they’re there for the pub, or for Sayer Sister, or whether they’re actually doing all-day parking,” Ms Xamon said.

“I’m conscious of wanting to make sure that we don’t make things too difficult for those local businesses.”