If you overstay your time limit while parking in Auburn Street, it’s pretty unlikely you’ll get a ticket under the current Council approach to parking. But the jury’s out on whether this is a good thing for Goulburn or not. In the first of a two-part series, DAVID BUTLER examines the controversial issue of parking patrols.
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WHILE the average shopper may be happy with the current arrangement, retailers along Goulburn’s main street are frustrated that their customers can’t get a park.
Chamber of Commerce President Rob Walker said it was a constant concern for local retailers.
“Look we’ve always been concerned about parking in the CBD. As you work your way further north up Auburn St, it becomes impossible to get a park,” he said.
“We’ve said to Council that they should really be looking at a multistory car park in the CBD, because if you think it’s bad now, what about in five years’ time?
“There are a couple of spots in the CBD that would be suitable (for a car park), and as we move forward it becomes a priority,” Mr Walker said.
Another solution, initiated by Councillor Neil Penning, was a fulltime ‘goodwill’ parking officer employed by Council, aimed at changing the mindset of people parking in the CBD.
The problem, he said, was that the current lack of consistency was annoying for both retailers and customers alike.
“The community tends to take pot luck and overstay the time limit, because it’s pretty unlikely they’ll get booked. Then, every so often, you have a (parking infringement) blitz, and that’s when people get cranky,” he said.
“It’s such an ad hoc system at the moment, and it ticks people right off. You know, they’ll have been parking somewhere illegally for months - whether it’s just to run inside for five minutes and grab something from the shop - and then all of sudden there’s a blitz and they get fined. It can spoil your day.”
A full-time, goodwill parking inspect would, Cr Penning said, change the mindset of people parking in the city without putting too many noses out of joint, and without offending visitors to the city.
“When you’ve got a full-time, consistent person, that person has to work with the business owners and the community, and it’s a much better system,” he said.
“It’s not about parking infringements, it’s about changing a mindset, and that’s the challenge for Councillors.”
63 notices in 7 months From January 1 to July 31 this year Goulburn Mulwaree Council issued 63 parking infringement notices, at an average of about two per week.
But patrols were sporadic. Not a single fine was issued over February or March this year, with five fines issued in April and 27 issued in May.
With such a small amount of fines being issued and on such an irregular basis, the chances of getting booked are slim, and are likely to remain that way after funding for Councillor Penning’s full-time ‘goodwill’ parking officer was rejected by Councillors earlier this year.
Parking around the CBD is currently monitored on an irregular roster basis by Goulburn Mulwaree’s four full-time rangers. But as Director of Planning and Community Services Chris Stewart explained to the Post, most of the rangers’ time is occupied by rounding up livestock and stray animals.
“We’ve got four full-time rangers, but - being a regional council - a large part of their time is taken up by impounding livestock and rounding up stray dogs and that kind of thing,” Mr Stewart said.
“Parking in the CBD is raised as an issue from time to time, and we try to address concerns where they arise, whether that be boosting the patrols when requested,” he said.
Mr Stewart couldn’t put an exact figure on the annual revenue raised by parking fines, but said it wasn’t a lot of money. “It’s not significant revenue by any means. It goes some way to covering costs, but it’s not much,” he said.
