Commuters are unlikely to be told in advance when car spaces at Penrith Station will be closed for electrical work, with Penrith Council and Connect Infrastructure at loggerheads over who is responsible to notify the public.
The Weekender revealed last week that over 80 car spaces at Penrith Station’s Belmore Street car park were closed off from the public for three days without public notification, as commuters scrambled to snatch up the remaining spots.
This week, it happened again, with some 20 spots out of action on Tuesday morning.
Connect Infrastructure Project Manager, Nathan Marshall, said as it’s a Council car park, he believes it is up to Council to inform the community when car parks close – not the contractor.
“Council is the landowner. We told them that our work would be between 8pm and 5am but we would be blocking spots from [8pm] Sunday night to 5am Thursday morning,” he said.
“We are a contractor to Endeavour Energy, we just notify the landowner… it’s not a part of our contract. We do notifications for electrical outages, but not car parks out.”
Mr Marshall said they needed to block the car parks off so cars were not parked in the job zone at any time.
“If we turn up at night and there are cars in our job zone then we are unable to do our work,” he said.
The work is clearly required but the lack of notice, information or alternative parking arrangements is what is frustrating commuters.
Penrith Council said they did give Connect Infrastructure a permit to undertake night works last week and cordon off the spaces, but only from 8pm to 5am.
“No permit was given for closure during the day and this would have required public notification from the applicant,” a spokesperson said.
“Council has advised Endeavour Energy that there will be no approval for any future works in Council managed car parks, unless they and their contractors erect relevant signage and commuters and station staff are given reasonable notice.”
Council said the recent permit for Belmore Street car park had strict conditions that the operator was to notify those who may be affected in advance.
– Dale Drinkwater
Weekender Newsroom
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