‘Like a scar on your body:’ Paid parking plan thrown out by council
Residents packed Sydney council chambers on Tuesday night to vocally oppose a proposal to introduce paid parking for visitors at some of the city’s most popular beaches.
Randwick City Council met on Tuesday night to take part in a final debate and receive comments from local interest groups on a controversial plan to introduce parking meters and widespread paid parking at seven beaches within the LGA.
More than 1,000 parking spaces in Clovelly, Coogee, Maroubra, Malabar, Little Bay, La Perouse and Yarra Bay will be paid for by anyone who does not live in the local government area.
According to council documents, surveys of more than 11,498 local residents showed 55 per cent of local people supported the proposal; The percentage of support increased after surveying several hundred people visiting from other LGAs.
Despite this, voluntary submissions to the council were overwhelmingly negative; 82 percent of people opposed the plan.
Speaking at the council meeting, Annie Haque, a local resident for more than 30 years, said the parking meters currently installed at Coogee Beach were “a scar on your body” and “a reminder of what people don’t want”.
“Twenty-one years ago the community successfully campaigned against a major plan to install meters and here we are again. We didn’t want them then and we don’t want them now,” he said.
“We want to keep Randwick free in every sense of the word. Free for ourselves, our friends, our family, our carers, our tradespeople and everyone else who comes from near and far.”
Ms Haque said the scheme, which the council suggested would generate millions in extra revenue for local projects, was unnecessary as the council was already “financially strong”.
Liberal councilor Daniel Rosenfeld seized on the debate as an opportunity to take on Randwick’s Labor councillors, including Randwick Mayor Dylan Parker, describing the proposal as a “big, big new tax”.
“At a time when cost of living pressures are so high, mainly because of Labor policies at other levels of government, they now want to oppose another tax. This tax will make people pay to visit our beaches,” he said.
“Cafes, bars and restaurants on Maroubra beach have customers from nearby suburbs such as Pagewood, Daceyville, Eastlakes, Roseberry and Mascot and these people will not return in the same numbers once the parking meters go in.
“Instead of helping businesses in our region, we are potentially hurting them.”
Labor councilor Aaron Magner defended the proposal, describing it as a “fair” choice that would put Randwick largely in step with other Sydney coastal councils by using visitor money to shift the burden of public projects off ratepayers.
“Our current parking system requires Randwick taxpayers to subsidize motorists from outside the local government area… We are one of the only councils in Sydney that does not ask visitors to contribute,” he said.
“This isn’t really about fairness, it’s really not sustainable and it’s not really good policy.”
Throughout the hearing, members of the crowd supported those who spoke against the proposal and mocked or even laughed at those who spoke in favor of it.
The gallery groaned when Mr. Magner said visitors only paid “the cost of a cup of coffee.”
Ultimately, the proposal to abolish the parking meter policy was accepted with 10 votes in favor and 5 against.
