Letters to the Editor - Oct 2017

Letters to the Editor - Oct 2017

Support for Eq Tower story

I have just come across the article “Complaints about brand new tower” about Brittany Li while I was having lunch today.

I’m also a resident in Eq Tower – a brand-new and seemingly-luxury building . The water leakage from the air-conditioning that Brittany was talking about was true. One of my friends living in the tower also experienced this situation.

Also, the air-con in my living room needed to be fixed twice – not to mention the light switch that needed to be replaced again and again in many rooms.

The waiting time for the lift has improved and now works very well. However, I think the management of this building needs to show more effort. I have a neighbour who smokes indoors and the fumes get into my room. This is an ongoing problem for four months already. I am not a smoker.  I seal all the gaps, have an air purifier and I open the windows.

Laundry becomes a problem when the fan circulates the fumes from the hallway. I contacted the building manager two months ago and for a second time last week and they said they couldn’t do anything and couldn’t stop people from smoking in their private property.

I think at least they should contact the agency or landlord who I’m sure would ban indoor smoking. There is a balcony for a reason. I’m sure that many people living in the CBD also suffering from noise and smell from their neighbours.

Achiraya

The CBD needs to be serviced

I moved my family into the CBD from an outer suburb 12 months ago with no regrets.

My wife and I run a family business in electrical contracting and employ seven full-time staff members and mainly provide electrical service and maintenance within the CBD.

The majority of our work involves electrical breakdown and maintenance. Our staff are constantly returning to our office with parking fines, although the driver of the vehicle is responsible for any infringement notices allocated to their vehicle, we do pay half the cost of parking tickets along with the initial parking fee. We found this to be fair as this arrangement keeps staff alert to the time allocation of parking meters.

One of our electricians obtained two parking tickets in one day, came back to the office and resigned that day!

Now getting down to the reason for my letter to you …

The majority of on-street parking bay time allocation is from 30 minutes to one hour. This time is not adequate to perform the most basic task. By the time the trades person leaves the vehicle, arrives at the property and looks at the job, the half hour is up and the vehicle needs to be moved from the parking bay (in which the driver had already driven around the block twice to find). Remembering the further away you park, the less time you have to inspect the job before the meter expires. Every time a vehicle is moved from one parking bay to another this causes traffic congestion on our streets. This also is certainly contributing to jobs taking longer and therefore an added expense to the retailers and residents of the CBD.

I wrote to Melbourne City Council and requested a review of parking for service vehicles within the CBD, with no response. I also had spoken to Mr Robert Doyle on the Neil Mitchell program, with a sub-standard response. “You have loading zones to utilise for that,” Mr Doyle said.

Even then the loading zones are from 15 minutes to 30 minutes and are mostly used by delivery drivers.

When I contacted Melbourne City Council, I proposed a permit or registration system to allow service vehicles the ability to remain parked in the original bay so long as the meter has not expired. This would allow additional revenue for the council by means of an application fee and annual fee for the registration/permit as well as revenue from the meter. The application could be scrutinised by council prior to issuance.

As companies provide these services to multiple addresses within the CBD on any given day, it isn’t viable to park in off-street parking and, in most cases, it is not an option for service vehicles due the 1.9m height limit.

I think the council has a cash cow when it comes to dishing out fines and have no ambition in reducing traffic congestion within the CBD.

Pros for proposed permit/registration system: 

Council revenue for application of permit;

Council revenue for annual permit;

Less congestion as vehicles are not moving from parking bay to parking bay;

Less pollution as vehicles are not moving from parking bay to parking bay;

Less cost to the customer/client as time wasted moving vehicles is erased; and

Trades person can concentrate on the given task with less anxiety. (This is a real issue).

Cons for proposed permit/registration system: 

Reduction of parking infringement notices.

Given the increase in CBD living, the problem can only get worse and a solution needs to be introduced.  The problem is not to be confused with CBD construction as I am referring to service vehicles performing tasks/jobs at multiple addresses on any given day.

Dean Tooby

Like us on Facebook