Byron Council will move ahead with its plan to install parking meters in Brunswick Heads after a majority of councillors voted in favour of the scheme last week.
But Byron Shire locals will be entitled to a free permit that will exempt them from having to pay for parking in the town, at least for now.
In a decision that follows nearly a decade of debate over how to address parking issues in Bruns, all but two of the elected councillors voted to endorse a paid parking scheme at last Thursday’s Council meeting.
It will see parking meters charging $3 per hour installed in the centre of town, as well as the beachfront parking area on the other side of the river.
This will reportedly generate around $3 million in revenue for Council each year, though this will be reduced by the offer of a free permit to locals.
Those who work in the town but live outside the Shire will also be entitled to a parking permit. However, it is unclear whether these permits will be free or not.
The decision follows the completion of a parking study, which found that even during the low season the centre of Bruns was still reaching a ‘trigger point’ for further intervention, namely 72 per cent occupancy.
Parking was at capacity on the weekend at all times of year, and well above capacity during the high season, the study found.
It also predicted that parking demand in the centre of town would increase nearly 10 per cent over the next five years.
‘It’s clear to me every time I go to Bruns what the current parking situation is,’ said Mayor Michael Lyon.
‘This is about congestion. The parking studies have been done and they show the congestion, and show that it is going to get worse and it’s going to get worse quickly.’
Speaking in favour of his proposal to grant locals a free parking permit, Cr Lyon said he did not believe it was fair to ‘tax residents for parking in their own town’.
‘I don’t think it’s reasonable in a Shire where we have very little public transport, to be effectively creating a tax on locals,’ Cr Lyon said.
‘If you want to get somewhere in this Shire you have to drive. Until we have an adequate alternative public transport system it’s too much to charge people to park at their local.’
But not everyone was in favour of the paid parking plan.
Bruns chamber of commerce opposed
Earlier, during the public access section of the meeting, former Brunswick Heads Business Chamber president, Kim Rosen, spoke against the proposal.
Speaking on behalf of the Business Chamber, Ms Rosen submitted ten reasons why the matter should be deferred until Council’s February meeting, a move that she said was ‘in the interest of fairness and good process’.
Ms Rosen asserted that there had been no consultation with key stakeholders before the staff report was written, and also claimed that the evaluation of options by Council staff was inadequate.
She questioned the findings of the parking study, and said that paid parking would not fix the issue of vans parking at the beach at night.
Independent councillor, Mark Swivel, said that while he was in favour of paid parking, he did not support giving locals a free permit.
‘I think it’s wrong to characterise paid parking as a tax, and it misleads the community,’ Cr Swivel said.
‘Paid parking is just a service charge, and to characterise it as tax takes us down a rabbit hole that we don’t really need to go down.
‘There should be concessions from the permit charge for seniors, people on the NDIS, Centrelink and so on…
‘But paid parking, if we’re going to apply it, and I think we should apply it across the Shire wherever traffic volume and parking needs demand. It needs to be seen for what it is: it’s a charge for what people use.
‘I understand it’s a popular idea to provide free permits, but it’s just plain wrong.’
Cr Swivel was one of two councillors to vote against the plan, with the other being Independent councillor Alan Hunter, who unsuccessfully moved a motion for the matter to be deferred.
In addition to endorsing the paid parking scheme, Council also voted to examine the possibility of providing a parking discount to those living in neighbouring shires.
It will also receive a report on increasing the area covered by parking restrictions in Bruns in a bid to address the potential impact of visitors parking in residential streets to avoid paying for parking.
Mullum and Bangalow next?
The meeting also heard that Council is in the process of developing a paid parking scheme for Mullumbimby, though this will depend on a range of factors, including plans for a new car park on rail corridor land.
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