Parking will be restricted along a section of Mill Park Drive after a petition to council complained about students taking all the spots.
Whittlesea councillors decided last week to restrict parking along a section of Mill Park Drive near the Mill Park Community House to three hours on weekdays after receiving a petition from 170 people fed up with “excessive parking by RMIT students”.
The petition was organised by the community house, which set up in the street in 1985.
Community house director Lynne Harris said that since RMIT University began charging students to park in its on-site car park almost three years ago, parking near the community centre had become increasingly difficult.
“There was a gradual spill-out onto the street and it’s become worse every year since. This year is appalling.
“By 8.15am, this whole street is full of P-plate cars, so disabled and elderly people have to park miles away,” she said.
Ms Harris said the problem was preventing the neighbourhood house from fulfilling its own role in the community, such as providing occasional care and training.
“It’s really had an impact on us,” she said.
RMIT’s Bundoora campus is just a few hundred metres from Mill Park Drive via a pedestrian walkway. There are more than 2600 on-campus parking spaces with an occupancy rate of about 60 per cent.
A report by council’s infrastructure officer, Nick Mann, concluded that RMIT students chose to park in the Mill Park Drive area to avoid paying parking fees.
The council estimates it will cost $3000 to bring in the new parking restrictions.
