Trees will be cut down and pavement laid in the current park, next to the swimming pool, to provide about half the number of car parks to be lost when construction begins on a new supermarket, in the current Woolworths car park.

The consultation period for the temporary car park has closed and construction is expected to begin this month, at the corner of Cowper and Antill streets.

The ACT Planning and Land Authority has received 18 submissions on the proposal, with some complaining the entrance to the car park is too close to a major intersection.

Diane Fielding, Downer Community Association convenor, said it was unlikely the car park would be temporary.

''Once you put down a couple of coats of bitumen and knock down the trees, you’re not going to restore that,'' she said on Sunday.

''The park they are going to vandalise – I feel you could only describe it as that – is a lovely little park at the back of the pool and it’s where every summer a mother duck brings up her ducklings.

''It’s just such a shame – it just seems to us, you’d have to say what for, why are we doing this.''

Mrs Fielding said residents acknowledged there had to be change in Dickson.

''I think most of us were rather shocked when we realised there were going to be two additional supermarkets. I just can’t imagine why we need two,'' she said.

The park appears to be little used but Mrs Fielding said seats could be installed for residents.

Planning Minister Mick Gentleman said issues such as noise, removal of trees, traffic and the nature of the car park would be carefully considered by ACTPLA when assessing the proposal through the development application process.

''For example, the government would seek advice from the relevant agency in relation to traffic management and parking,'' he said.

''I would encourage all relevant stakeholders and members of the wider Canberra community to put in submissions, raising any concerns they may have, during the public notification period.''

A submission from Dickson-based planning consultant Jane Goffman raises ''serious concerns about the practical benefit'' of the proposal.

She says the temporary car park is too far away from the centre's main activity hub and there are too many access barriers between the proposed site and the services and facilities people are trying to get to.

''The current positions of the two proposed driveways would make vehicular access from Cowper and Antill streets too unsafe and unwieldy for the majority of traffic travelling there,'' her submission says.

''A workable temporary car park and a range of other measures are absolutely necessary to remedy the significant loss in parking supply and increase in traffic chaos that will result when the Coles/Doma Group fence off what has been the single largest and most used public car park in the entire shopping centre, so as to ensure that the centre's traders and other community services remain viable.

''However, it is vital that temporary measures be accessible and safe for the people using them and other passers-by.

''If this car park does go ahead on the proposed site, it should be improved and enlarged in a number of ways to make it safer and easier to use, and the layout made more flexible.

''The ingress driveway from Cowper Street should be deleted because it is too close to a busy signalised intersection and will impede traffic turning east and south, and delay traffic flows in both directions along Cowper and Antill streets, creating additional congestion and nuisance on both these roads and their feeder roads, and a potential accident black spot.

''The site could instead be surfaced with a porous gravel base to save money and provide a larger area to park in that is demonstrably temporary and less damaging to the root zones of the trees to be retained.

''Incentives could be given to the former TAB site's owners to act on their approved DA for a car park.''

The Downer Community Association submission questions whether the current design for the car park meets Australian standards.

''The setback separation distances from a major arterial road intersection at Antill and Cowper streets will engender traffic chaos through the location of car park entrances directly onto Antill Street and Cowper Street, both of which currently experience very heavy peak hour traffic,'' it says.

''The loss of shade resulting from the removal of 27 mature trees from the pool’s northern border will have a detrimental impact on the amenity provided by the pool for the many thousands of users.''