Businessmen To Protest At New Parking Ban

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30154, 11 June 1963, Page 15

Businessmen To Protest At New Parking Ban

A meeting of businessmen with premises fronting Colombo street south will be held tomorrow afternoon to protest against the City Council regulation prohibiting the parking or standing of vehicles in Colombo street, from Oxford terrace to Moorhouse avenue, during afternoon peak traffic periods. The regulation, which clears Colombo street of all but moving traffic and passenger buses from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. from Monday to Thursday, and 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Fridays, came into force yesterday. The organisers expect at least 60 businessmen to attend toe meeting. They have invited representatives of toe City Council traffic committee to attend. They hope that the meeting will appoint a deputation to the City Council. “We feel that the volume of traffic in Colombo street south does not warrant this sweeping prohibition on

parking,” said a spokesman for the organisers of the protest meeting yesterday. “Between 5 p.m. and 6 p.m, there is an abundance of metered parking space between Lichfield street and Moorhouse avenue in Colombo street. There is no peak period of traffic before 5 p.m. in this area. The peaks, which do not cause any traffic jams in this area of Colombo street, are after 5 p.m. and again after 5.30 p.m.”

He said that the “unjustified parking prohibition” would hit businessmen in Colombo street hard, and the businessmen were the biggest ratepayers. Any speeding up of traffic in the area would be nullified by the stoppages caused by the flow of cross traffic at the Moorhouse avenue intersection.

The City Council view is that the prohibition on parking and standing vehicles includes the three metered spaces outside the Oxford Hotel in Colombo street. The map shows that these spaces are north of Oxford terrace.

According to one shopkeeper, the prohibition on vehicles standing means that a,taxi will not be able to pick up any shoppers or other persons 'in Colombo street during the periods the prohibition is in force.