Train commuters have been robbed of thousands of car spaces with the introduction of time restrictions at Watergardens shopping centre.
Last Monday, shopping centre owners Queensland Investment Corporation (QIC) introduced a four-hour limit on its outdoor parking spaces.
The centre has more than 4700 car spaces, only a few hundred of which are under cover.
There will be no restrictions at the centre’s underground carpark, which opens at 9am.
The time restriction has angered train commuters who have long complained about a lack of parking at the Watergardens station.
Sydenham MP and Local Government Minister Natalie Hutchins said more than a dozen people had contacted her office voicing frustration since the new restrictions were introduced.
Taylors Hill resident Rose Giarratana said she now had no choice but to park her car 10 minutes’ walk away to catch her citybound train because the station’s gravel car park was full before 8am.
Ms Giarratana told Star Weekly the new time restrictions at the shopping centre made parking even more difficult.
“This has significantly impacted train commuters, who are left with nowhere to park.”
Watergardens centre manager Joe Galea said the time restrictions were imposed after consistent complaints by retailers and customers that people used the centre’s car park to catch the train, rather than to shop.
“Our priority is to provide convenient, readily available parking for our customers to connect them with our retailers,” he said.
Centre staff will be exempt from the new restrictions.
Ms Hutchins said she was disappointed QIC had changed parking at the shopping centre without first consulting the community.
She said, as of Friday, her request for a moratorium on the restrictions had been denied.
She encouraged anyone affected to contact her office or make their opinion known to centre management.
Last month Ms Hutchins said a working group would be set up to investigate options for more parking around the station as part of the government’s project to remove the Melton Highway level crossing.
A PTV spokesman said there were currently 682 line-marked and sealed car spaces at the station and about 550 in a gravel area that PTV and Metro lease from the shopping centre.
Council will police the new parking regime.
