THE Bendigo Traders Association has put forward its second option in as many weeks in an effort to solve the city’s car parking woes and move the central bus hub from the CBD.
After putting forward a proposal last week which included building a multi-storey car park with a ground-level bus interchange over  Bendigo Creek between the Bendigo Bank and Short Street, the BTA has offered an alternative.
BTA vice president Graeme Baker said the concern for more car parking sent the association into the archives to review bus interchange and parking provisions for the CBD.
The search found drawings and a letter which were submitted to the council in 2002, detailing what the BTA believed were visionary plans for under-ground parking, a ground-floor bus interchange and above-ground offices on the corner of Hargreaves, Edwards and Queen streets.
While some of that site is now occupied by the Department of Human Services, Mr Baker believes the plan could be adopted for use on the Hargreaves and Edward streets corner or the corner of Bath Lane and Edward streets.
“It’s still a very, very relevant plan to solve today’s problem,” he said.
“We are aware the conditions for bus users have been lacking in Bendigo for some time ... everything in this is so relevant.”
While Mr Baker acknowledged the plan would not solve the immediate problem facing Mitchell Street traders, he said the aim was to provide a long-term solution.
“These buses are a fact of life for the people in Mitchell Street ... we need to look at the long term,” he said. “We put this proposal up six years ago, if they’d (the City of Greater Bendigo) had run with it then, we wouldn’t be having these problems.”