AUSTRALIA: Senior citizens' drive steps up

GRAFTON, NSW (The Daily Examiner), August 18, 2008: FOR nearly two years Eric Holbrook has waited patiently to find out when extra car parking will be made available at Grafton Community Centre. Now, it seems, he is going to have to wait a little longer. Mr Holbrook said he first approached Clarence Valley Council (CVC) about building a new car park on the western side of the Duke Street centre, to accommodate about 20 extra cars, in April 2006. As president of Grafton Senior Citizens Inc, he said the parks were needed to accommodate aged and disabled drivers who found it difficult to walk up the street when the small parking lot out the front of the centre filled up. "We've got people in senior cits who are disabled, have bad legs and all that," he said. Since then, he has met with councillors and council engineers to discuss the possibility of Clarence Valley Council leasing part of the land back from Australian Rail Track Corporation (ARTC), which owns a small part of the land under consideration. Mr Holbrook said that with senior citizens members holding activities at the community centre almost every day, the extra parking needed to be created sooner rather than later. Senior citizens members have also sent several letters to the mayor and general manager, as well as a petition of 250 signatures in favour of the car park. Mr Holbrook said that about 10 weeks ago, he met with council staff again, and ARTC had not been contacted. He said he still did not have confirmation on whether the extra parking would be made available. "We haven't heard anything ... they certainly haven't let me know," he said. "I'm not very happy at all." Council deputy general manager Rob Donges said after surveying the area, council had decided not to contact ARTC, as the area was not suitable for a car park. "It's a very tight area and would be very difficult to manoeuvre into car parks ... it wouldn't be viable," he said. Mr Donges said Clarence council would put efforts and money towards formalising the existing street parking out the front of the centre. He said the area would be surveyed early this week, with options available, including the amount of spaces and the cost of the operation, made available within a couple of weeks time. © APN News & Media Ltd 2008.