Traders have reacted with alarm at the loss of short-term car parks along Armstrong Street North.
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The busy strip, which features boutique retailers as well as a thriving hospitality precinct, had nine 15 minute parks introduced in April last year as part of the City of Ballarat's response to the pandemic.
They have now been removed, with council's development and growth director Natalie Robertson stating they were only a trial, and changed back to metered all-day parks.
The 15 minute parks had allowed quick pick-ups and drop-offs for many businesses, traders said, and were particularly helpful when they were forced to rely on takeaway and delivery services during lockdowns.
Several traders said they only found out about the change when The Courier approached them, while others said they had not been consulted beforehand.
Tim Matthews, from The Forge Pizzeria, said he was confident an outcome with council will be determined soon.
"Hopefully there's a resolution in favour of what the traders are after in the street," he said.
"Obviously they need to be able to keep in business and do what they do best, we have to balance that with community needs, but if there's no shops there, people won't want to park there."
Commerce Ballarat chief executive Jodie Gillett said the feedback she'd received was all positive.
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"It's helped with turnover and their trade, they're already noticing a difference and downturn without them," she said.
"With removal of the outdoor dining hubs, that's given eight parks back to that block, which is terrific, and (I hope) council can find an option to put some 15m parks in there.
"Anything we can do to help increase trade at the moment for our businesses is critical."
One Ballarat business particularly affected is Delivr, which runs a food delivery service across the city.
The company's Alex Power said the issue was another example of council not listening to businesses when they asked for feedback.
"It wasn't problem solving, but it was a lean towards the right way - a nice gesture, and now they've taken it off the table," he said.
"They seem to be making a lot of big picture decisions without consulting anyone - I didn't know they were doing it, the first I heard about the 15 minute car parks was today.
"We have drivers who drive for multiple platforms - there's a pattern in our data, drivers are trying to avoid Armstrong Street like their life depended on it, anything in that block is just chaos in the evenings."
He suggested council introduce a designated delivery driver zone to help with the pressure.
"Restaurants are starting to depend more and more on takeaway and delivery, if you remove that, you reduce their ability to do a good job, and it hurts the restaurants more and more," he said.
In a statement, Ms Robertson said council had committed to trialling the parking bays while the outdoor dining hubs were in use, which were removed last week.
"A total of nine 15-minute parking bays were provided - all located in Armstrong Street North -to assist hospitality providers offering take away services during COVID. These short-term parking bays have now been removed in line with the removal of the temporary dining hubs," she said.
"Mixed feedback has been received about the temporary parking arrangements. We are now reviewing parking use in this precinct to assess what the needs are regarding parking arrangements in this area.
"Council will assess data from the City's parking system , consider all the outdoor dining feedback as well as feedback regarding the parking system, prior to making any further changes."
Mayor Daniel Moloney said permanent outdoor dining infrastructure, including wind breaks, would be installed across the city.
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"The challenge is, if we put down permanent infrastructure, a brand new outdoor dining hub that takes up parking spaces, if that business leaves in a couple of years time, you've created an issue," he said.
"It's a bit unusual to just plonk pods on Sturt and Armstrong streets, you wouldn't do that normally, you'd go through consultation first, but I think everyone got that COVID was a rare, once-in-a-hundred-year issue that we needed to address - it can't stay there without proper planning indefinitely.
It's been a pity to pull them down (and) some businesses will miss them, unfortunately."
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