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July 25, 2014
Enterprising Nanango residents, sick of waiting for upgrades to Drayton Street, this week decided to paint in their own angled parking bays outside local shops.
The roughly painted lines appeared overnight on Monday.
Not surprisingly, council quickly blocked off the area with barriers and the offending lines were later painted over.
Nanango businesswoman Jane Erkens said the incident reflected local businesspeople’s frustration with delays to the Nanango CBD upgrade.
She said the original plans, shown to residents before the makeover commenced, showed angled parking bays and a leafy green streetscape.
But instead, the few plants that had been in Drayton Street – Nanango roses – had been removed and concrete had been installed where the gardens had been indicated.
Ms Erkens said she had now heard the angled parking bays would not be happening, either.
“We were told that it was going to be green with little shrubs,” she said.
“What are they going to do, dig up the concrete they’ve put in?
“The original plan also showed angled parking (to replace the lost bays in the centre of the road) but afterwards they discovered it was too narrow.”
She said the lost parking spaces were hurting local businesses because people could no longer pull up for a short time and pop into a shop.
The original plans had also shown cobbled walkways, she said; these had been laid as just plain concrete.
Ms Erkens questioned whether anyone from the South Burnett Regional Council had consulted with Main Roads before the plans were drawn up or if they were just pretty drawings.
“I think it was a figment of their imagination,” she said.
“Obviously the plans we were originally shown are not going to happen.”
She said she had heard new plans were being drawn up.
Ms Erkens suggested that if this is being done, a little space be taken off the footpaths to enable the angled bays to be re-instated.
