As of now, parking in the centre of Main Street, Grenfell is prohibited.
There was a small notice last week in the Weddin Shire Council’s news in the Record informing motorists that this situation was now in force.
The practice of parking in the centre of the road has been in vogue for many, many years, if not decades, and most of the good citizen’s in the shire have availed themselves of the situation for various reasons at one time or another. Most of those occasions would be where an articulated trailer or, large truck or delivery vehicle, were being used in town.
Drivers would simply find a spot in the centre of the road and go and see whoever and be back and on their way within minutes.
The biggest beneficiaries of this laissez fair arrangement (perhaps never strictly 100% within the town’s by laws) were delivery trucks and some council vehicles attending to trees and collecting rubbish.
Traffic islands were also constructed in Main Street so that trucks and articulated vehicles could not park too close to pedestrian crossings with the potential danger for those using those crossings.
However, all that has now been curtailed by the long arm of the law.
A couple of weeks ago a council vehicle driver was fined for parking in the middle of Main Street.
The Highway Patrol officer who booked the offending vehicle’s driver warned that the law must be obeyed and that any driver who parked in this manner from now on would face the same penalties.
Council has obviously instructed all their drivers re this matter. The matter has now been passed on to the Council’s Traffic Committee where it will be fully discussed. The Council and the Business Development Committee have approached the police with an offer to address them sometime in the near future re this matter.
In the meantime Council will be making moves to extend the “Loading Zone’ in Teston Street (next to the Criterion Hotel) so that shop delivery vehicles will have somewhere to park off the Main Street. It may eventually extend the whole length of one side of Teston Street.
However, until the matter is resolved and new arrangements put in place, motorists are advised to not park in the middle of Main Street.