The latest renewal proposal has been approved
by Council and one of the sticking points for traders has always been car
parking.
The current
car park is to be eventually converted to parkland but not before two
alternative car parking facilities are built – 500 car parks under the Munro
building, and up to 500 more in a new building at the Franklin Street end of
the site. This could all take 6 years to complete.
Concerns have been raised
about the distance of the southern site on Franklin Street and also what impact
moving the main parking down to Munro’s will have on general trading.
Presumably it will be beneficial for the food halls but what will be the impact
on the Upper Sheds? Fortunately 6 years is a good time span to measure and
evaluate car parking trends.
But some
other questions have been raised by traders. Will the Munro parking (and the
Franklin parking) be available to market customers or will it be commandeered by
other city users?
Essentially
traders want to be sure that every customer who wants to fill their boot with
market goods is able to do so without too much inconvenience. There are ways of
ensuring that market customers get preference and that may need attention as
we move on with this project.