Melissa Hirsch, Suffolk Park
I’m curious to know if any other locals have had their cars booked for early morning visits to the beach (before 6am)?
As a local, I, and everyone I talk to, know the no parking 1–6am is purely to stop people camping or sleeping in their vehicles… but it doesn’t… and it doesn’t stop locals parking there either.
For at least five months of the year the sun rises before 6am, but dawn is a good half an hour before this. This means if you want to park at the beachfront for sunrise, no matter what your recreational activity (fisher people, dog walkers, joggers, boot campers etc) you are parking illegally (locals pass or not).
Throughout the Shire the various beachfronts have no parking 1–6am or 1–5am. This is hundreds of car spaces that aren’t allowed to be accessed, and for what reason?
I know this is very first world, but we are a community, and these rules are locally generated and there is a huge cohort of people who are illegally parking – illegal for no fair or sensible reason.
I’ve written to Council to have the signs adjusted… I know it’s a big job, but why are we penalising ratepayers?
Another option might be a ‘sunriser pass’ that gives us access to the beach for dawn visits throughout the year so we can park legally in the safest and most convenient spaces that are otherwise available to us after 6am.
Is there anyone else who sees these time restrictions/ parking restrictions as unnecessarily uncompromising?
