COCKBURN Gateway shopping centre has unveiled senior parking bays after a local resident appealed for their installation.
Former Cockburn councillor Ev Wagner convinced the shopping centre to install 12 seniors-only bays across four locations near the shops.
There are three bays each at the north entry, in the basement and near the Coles and ALDI entrances.
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READ NOWMs Wagner said she was inspired to push for the bays to be installed after talking to fellow seniors and realising how far they occasionally walked from the car park.
“I’ve often thought about why don’t they have senior carparking bays, even though I’m able to walk a distance,” she said.
“One day I was up at a cafe in the shopping centre and I saw some old friends.
“I spoke to one of them and she said ‘we bring this lady out to coffee, but it takes two of us to get her into the shopping centre and if we had senior bays it would be so much easier’.”
Ms Wagner said she put a deputation together and met the shopping centre’s senior management, who supported her proposal.
“I had done my homework on what I wanted, where the bays should be and why I think the bays should be there,” she said.
“I had worked out I wanted nine.
“When I got there, they had the plans for 12 and they were nearly identical to where I was putting them.”