General News
18 March, 2026
Anger over carpark closure
AN area that accommodated more than 110 carparks which catered to staff and customers of Atherton’s CBD have been fenced off by Tablelands Regional Council for around four months, leaving Main Street businesses feeling angry and frustrated.
The council is redeveloping the area along Railway Avenue into a new carpark, but in the meantime, businesses are losing customers who cannot find a park anywhere in close proximity to the main retail precinct.
Affected businesses have told The Express they are considering legal action against the council or demands for compensation for the loss of trade during the extended period of the carpark closure.
The businesses say they had no time to discuss the matter with council before fencing went up last Monday, only receiving an email informing them of the carpark closure on 3 March.
In a media statement, council advised the works would not be completed until the end of June – something the businesses can’t understand given that the project only involves resurfacing the carpark, painting the white lines and putting in some lighting.
For Barron Valley Hotel owner Michael Nasser, the closure means his regular customers and diners have nowhere to park as well as the buses which transport backpackers staying at the hotel to various work sites.
“It’s just ridiculous – they should have done the carpark in two stages, that way at least there would be some parks available at all times,” he said.
“The council told us that our staff and customers can park at the IGA carpark which is too far away, and it also means taking up their parks which the Silo shopping centre supplied for their customers.
“The crux of the matter is that people were struggling to get a park in Main Street before they shut this carpark.”
With carparking at a premium in the town, people are also perplexed as to why TRC recently voted to sell off the carpark on the corner of Vernon and Mabel streets for disposal.
Mr Nasser believes the council staff should vacate their carpark in Mabel Street and park further up Vernon Street while the works are underway to make way for CBD customers and staff.
“I parked the two buses we use in that carpark last week because there’s nowhere else to go,” he said.
With Main Street car parks already full by mid-morning, customers for businesses like Terry White Chemist will find access almost impossible.
Retail manager Lauren George said the business was promoting free delivery in a bid to keep customers.
“A lot of our customers park in Railway Avenue, so they can use the ramp up to the back of the pharmacy but now that option is no longer there, they have nowhere close to park near the main street,” she said.
She believes customers will take their business to pharmacies in shopping complexes.
“If they can’t get a park out front, they will go to the shopping centres because they are accessible – we are definitely going to lose a lot of customers,” Ms George said.
“And the problem is that once customers go to a new place, they often don’t return.
“My only option at the moment is to get out to the public the fact that we do free delivery in Atherton to try and help our customers.
“The first we knew about the closure was an email only days before it was to close – we should have been told weeks ahead to discuss how it would affect businesses.”
Ms George said the difficulty in getting a park in Atherton’s main retail precinct had already been a deterrent in people shopping in the area.
“We had told our customers they could park in the Railway Avenue carpark but now that’s gone as well,” she said.
The Carrington Hotel has already expressed its concern about how the closure will affect its revenue in a letter to the council from its legal representatives.
The hotel’s customers make up a lot of users of the Railway Avenue carpark, especially older people who use the lift at the back of the hotel to access it.
“We have acknowledged our disgust at the way this has been done – if this was council’s business they would protect it, but they have done nothing to protect our business,” Far North Hotels regional manager Michael Montague said.
He said doing the work in stages would have been preferable and criticised the lack of consultation with businesses which could have minimised disruption.
Meanwhile, in Jack Street, Office Choice has been left with no parking spaces outside their store, leaving owners Josh and Emma Jerome feeling frustrated and dismissed.
Mr Jerome made his concerns clear to the council in September last year but has failed to get any satisfaction in relation to his financial losses.
“From the outset, the temporary fencing, ongoing disarray, and lack of site management have made our premises look abandoned,” he said at the time.
He said because the two designated parking bays were lost outside his business, many of his elderly customers no longer bothered coming in and some people thought the business was not operating.
Mrs Jerome said last week that due to the road closure sign at the Jack/Main Street intersection for work on a new roundabout at the end of the street, some people thought the street was closed to traffic and that their business was shut.
“We have been badly affected since this project began,” she added.
