The perennial push by Council to deploy pay parking in Brunswick Heads and Mullumbimby was voted through at last week’s meeting – all with the support of every councillor except Alan Hunter.
At the end of debate, councillors agreed to allocate $140,000 ‘to fund an updated parking study including an expansion of the pay parking areas and an assessment of current supply and demand, time limits’.
A further report was requested from staff by April 2023 ‘on the above, and also on comparative pay parking rates in other local government areas’.
As for the unfolding pod development on Prince Street, Mullumbimby, staff have been instructed to ‘Consult with Transport for NSW in relation to parking/overflow associated with the temporary housing within the rail corridor and possible legacy outcomes from this initiative related to parking areas; and provide a further report on options to progress/fund a revised parking study’.
A further report was requested ‘on options to progress/fund a revised parking study’ for Mullumbimby.
During debate, Mayor Michael Lyon told the chamber that this was an election commitment with regards to revenue raising and the easing of traffic congestion.
He said, ‘I’ve noticed it’s now easier to park in Mullum over the last few months… I suspect more people aren’t living in the town because of the floods’.
Yet staff said later that pay parking, if adopted in Mullum and Bruns, would not be a revenue raiser and instead could cost Council to run the sheme.
‘It’s more for traffic management’, they said, because locals are mostly the users of the pay parking machines.
Cr Peter Westheimer asked staff why $140,000 was the amount requested.
A staff member replied it was ‘difficult to come up with a correct figure’, and was hoping it will be less than that amount. Most of the cost incurred was with traffic data collection, they said.
Cr Mark Swivel told the chamber he wanted to see pay parking introduced into Mullum, yet conceded there could be blow back from residents.
Sell proposal
‘We need to sell this proposal effectively, despite the intensity of objection [it may receive]’.
‘I met with a new group in Sunrise [Byron Bay], and they have positive perceptions of Byron’s CBD pay parking’.
Cr Hunter said meanwhile he was ‘still not convinced that business is out of the woods’, and that tourism confidence had returned. He said, ‘I’m nervous about doing anything that doesn’t help the business community’.
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