Cape Paterson residents demand action on Park Parade Road closure

A COMMUNITY campaign decades in the making has reached a crucial milestone with Bass Coast Shire Council presented with a petition demanding the immediate, temporary closure of Park Parade Road in Cape Paterson.

Signed by 30 local residents the petition called on council to bypass funding delays and implement vital safety measures to combat worsening traffic, rising dust, and speeding issues on the narrow, unsealed coastal thoroughfare.

The formal petition explicitly requested that council administrators implement Recommendation 9.3.6 of the Cape Paterson Local Area Transport Management (LATM) Plan, which was finalised in September 2025.

Rather than waiting for long-term budget approvals or successful state government funding applications to cover the permanent structural costs, residents have argued that the council must deploy immediate, low-cost temporary infrastructure.

Signatories to the petition have called on council to instantly block through-traffic utilising temporary means such as bollards and signs. The community has urged the shire not to let administrative backlogs compromise local safety while waiting out macro-funding cycles.

Beyond the physical closure, the petition outlined a comprehensive roadmap for a collaborative review process. It demanded that Bass Coast Shire Council conduct a rigorous evaluation gauging the effectiveness of the temporary closure of Park Parade Road.

According to residents this assessment must specifically measure improvements across the four key local pain points of traffic volume, vehicle speed, pedestrian safety, and airborne dust issues.

Crucially, residents are demanding a seat at the table, insisting that the council involve residents and ratepayers of Park Parade Road in the design of the evaluation study.

Under the proposed plan permanent closure infrastructure would only be pursued if the joint trial yields clear positive safety outcomes and if the council secured the necessary capital grants.

In tandem with the physical closure, the petition addressed the remaining open segments of the street. It requested a strict 30km/h speed limit on Park Parade Road between Anglers Road in the north and the new southern closure point.

The friction over Park Parade Road is far from a new neighbourhood dispute. Locals with a sense of history and long-term ratepayers noted that this latest push dates back to a petition first tabled with council in August 2020.

For six years, families living along this stretch of road have raised alarms regarding the structural nature of the road as a narrow, unsealed track. Residents claim that as Cape Paterson has grown in popularity as a tourism and lifestyle destination, the volume and speed of through-traffic bypassing main arterial links has escalated to an unsustainable level, degrading local air quality with thick dust clouds and creating a severe safety hazard for children and pedestrians walking near the beach.

Park Parade residents must now wait until the next ordinary council meeting when councillors will have the opportunity to debate whether this coastal enclave is granted its long-awaited peace.