I wish to express my disappointment at Option 4 being selected for the redevelopment of the Maude Street Mall. I have concerns this chosen design will be a large sum of ratepayers money spent for no real benefit to the actual businesses in the Mall. The plan was to beautify and to add much needed parking to the area, in a safe manner. I believe Option 4 fails in 2 of the 3 criteria. There is simply not enough added parking, and as a business in Stewart St I have absolute safety concerns.
I have been the owner of the Amusement Centre since 2001 and the building owner since 2002, and while I only recently sold the business, I am still the building owner and have been asked to continue being the representative for FunZone Amusements.
Together with Village Cinemas we have been the entertainment precinct, servicing the Goulburn Valley for over 20 years. As a team we work together to help our businesses to continue to be successful in a time where other retail businesses have struggled to survive in the neglected Maude St Mall development.
Day, night, and weekends our community space is populated by all ages, walking safely between each of our businesses. Blockbuster movie events and School Holidays are our peak times and collectively have up to 300 people entering and exiting a movie at one time and walking over to FunZone Amusements to spend extra family fun times. A removal of the safe community space between us will have a detrimental effect to the safety that currently exists. And with a road our strong link together will be broken and will negatively impact our current successful business model.
The current choice of Option 4 design does not have a safe crossing between our businesses. It also does not have a safe crossing for the many hundreds of people who walk over to the Multideck parking area. Other safety concerns I have is;
- Currently the area is also the main area for taxis to pick up and drop off the disabled safely. Where will this move to?
- How is the area going to address the pickups and drop offs of the many parents to Village Cinemas, if traffic is coming out of the Mall?
- There is currently a large Loading Zone which is the main delivery point to the Mall, many have forklifts and enter the Mall here. This will be affected by the traffic coming out of the Mall. This cannot be done in Wyndham, High, or Fryers Sts.
Other safety concerns are the already dangerous corner of Stewart and Corio Streets. At a Chamber of Commerce Mall Traders meeting over 2 years ago, a Vic Roads representative told us that that corner was not their preferred exit from the Mall due to safety and the dollars involved to fix it. This corner is dangerous already. It would be a catastrophe to add extra traffic.
I have been to all the meetings run by council and Spire in the lead up to the design decision. I did attend the Spire meeting which was run at the Shepparton RSL, with the Village Manager at that time, and we expressed all these safety concerns and more to the then plans. We were surprised and disappointed to see the plans did not change after that meeting and no safety changes made. Also disappointing is the fact that during the entire design concept formulation process by Spire, did any Spire representative come to our current community space and talk to either Village or myself and ask how the design would impact us, or ask us any thoughts on making this a successful design for the longevity of our businesses. Neither did 8 of the 9 councillors come down to our area and have a conversation, before choosing and voting on a plan, with the exception of Cr Fern Summer. Thank you Cr Summer for taking the time and showing consideration before voting, and being the only councillor to voice concerns during the vote.
I would like to see this design reconsidered. I believe the best outcome would be to leave Stewart St as a community space. The recent Christmas promotion which saw the space beautified with greenery and seating actually increased trade by 15% on the previous year’s figures. Many people sat and utilised the space. A fabulous initiative which had positive outcomes.
Sadly I believe if Option 4 redevelopment goes ahead, it WILL negatively impact the viability of FunZone Amusements. I am hopeful this is reconsidered.
Thank you for the consideration
Trina Laffy.
(Former proprietor of FunZone Amusements and current property owner in Stewart Street, who will be directly impacted by the planned exit from the Mall passed her shop and Village Cinemas).
Please note, this was a letter of concern and objection to the selected Option 4 of the Mall revitalisation, submitted to Council in September 2018.
