Bega Valley Shire is set to come up with a plan for changes to traffic and parking in Merimbula’s CBD if the current trial is deemed a failure.
The u-turn follows community angst on the issue, particularly making part of Beach Street one way ahead of the busy Festival season influx of tourists.
Councillors supported the move after an Extraordinary Meeting was called by Mitchell Naden, Peggy Noble and David Porter.
Councillor Nadin successful in calling on his colleagues to support the start of work immediately on a contingency plan instead of waiting until the end of the trial in the new year.
Retired senior town planner and local resident Roz Hansen told an Extraordinary Meeting of the council this week they could have avoided all of this community angst over trial traffic changes in Merimbula if they had just listened.
67 percent of respondents told the council during its consultation that they were against making Beach Street in the CBD one way.
Ms Hanson said it didn’t take long for gridlock to start, as predicted.
“I, and others warned council that Main Street would be required to do all the heavy lifting as a result of Beach St being one way and only after a few weeks of this in place the community is saying no more, no more council. We’ve had enough!
“Traffic is like water – it finds a way. They have found a way and Main Street is not coping at all. It’s just a mess,” she said.
