Byron Shire Council has announced it will not be implementing paid parking in Bangalow on 1 January 2018.
Instead new parking time limits will be introduced in the Bangalow CBD and monitored for 12 months.
Acting general manager Mark Arnold said councillors had voted not to implement paid parking in January next year saying they wanted to see the results of a 12-month trial of the impact of changes to parking time limits.
“Today’s vote replaces the previous resolution made at the meeting in August 2017,’ he said.
The decision to conduct a trial followed a rally last Saturday organised by the Bungalow Chamber of Commerce, and supported by Greens MP Tamara Smith.
Ms Smith had urged the council to conduct a trial instead of introducing paid parking, and it seems that the message got through to councillors.
The resolution from yesterday’s meeting will see one hour parking in Byron Street and part of Station Street and two hour parking in the remainder of Station Street for a period of 12 months. These parking time limits will be reviewed during the trial.
Mr Arnold said the council would employ a range of measures during 2018 including number plate recognition technology to monitor parking demands, the length of time people are staying and the number of infringements incurred by people staying over the time limit.
He said the information would allow the council to determine where the majority of people parking in Bangalow were from, for example from Queensland, or other parts of NSW such as the Northern Rivers region.
‘This information will be used to see if the changes to time limits have improved the turnover of parking in Bangalow over a 12-month period,’ he said.
‘Any future time limit changes or additional traffic management strategies, such as pay parking, will be informed by the results of the trial.
‘After 12-months a report containing the findings from the trial will be prepared for the consideration of the council.’
New signs with information about the parking times will be installed in early 2018.
Well done Bangalow.
Is it time to protest and take the rest of the Shires streets and beaches back?
A few weeks ago, the council stated the cost of paid parking infrastructure in Bangalow would be returned in 12 months and paid parking could be rescinded after a 12-month trial.
So, the costs of Byron Bays paid parking infrastructure would have been returned some time ago. This means paid parking and the no parking signs at Broken Head can be consigned to the dustbin if enough people protest
This response to the backflip by Council on the ridiculous notion of paid parking being required in the small village of Bangalow is a nonsensical attempt by Council and its employees to try and justify a totally outrageous, probably innumerate and possibly illegal grab for revenue. They cynically picked on a small village community that they felt would not object. No genuine attempt was made to pay any attention to what residents actually had to say on the matter. This is a hinterland heritage village, not a city, nor for that matter a large tourist town like Byron Bay where unregulated parking is a real issue. Locals and nearby rural residents know that in reality, apart from when there is a monthly market and perhaps on one or two other occasions a year, there is not and never was any real parking shortage in Bangalow. So to suggest this alteration of parking times as being a necessary exercise is, to say the least, a cynical arse-covering by both elected Councillors and by their administrative staff.
In reality, if one looks at the numbers to justify a revenue case for parking meters it is most unlikely that they stack up. The number of metered sites being discussed and discounting any income from many locals who use these spaces and already have Byronshre parking discs vs the relatively few outsiders who do recreational shopping in the VILLAGE (not a city be reminded) would only make economic sense to the totally innumerate.
To truly monitor the situation, as is now claimed by Council as being necessary, will almost for sure require additional staff. The likely to be not inconsiderable wages and on-costs of these additional members of staff added to which are their transport and equipment all will have to be borne by ratepayers across the Shire. Yet there is no discernible benefit to the Bangalow community, nor one may argue, the wider community of the Shire. It is time that this Council started looking at reining in costs not increasing them on unnecessary face-saving activities
It seems the businesses in Bangalow determine what’s best for the village. They organised the protests, and a small number, judging by the size of the protests, accepted their views as valid. Nobody presented the opposing arguments to the great majority of local residents, or collected statistics as to what they wanted.
So we’ve rejected a source of revenue from non-local visitors for our Council, but will no doubt continue to attack the Council for its failure to finance all our expectations and more. And we’ll no doubt complain whenever the visitors make it more difficult for us to park.
Bangalow exists for the local residents. The businesses exist for the local residents. (Not the other way about.)