Car parking time limits in Ballina’s town centre are to remain as they are after local councillors voted against changes in response to public feedback.
Councillors received recommendations late last year from a contracted consultant based on brief observations of parking trends in the Ballina central business district (CBD) over a day in late 2022.
The study included informal anecdotal comments from some retail representatives in the area but people parking weren’t interviewed.
Consultant Bitzios included several suggestions for changes to the council’s parking regime in the CBD, including to some of the zones and limits for timed parking.
But staff said feedback from the public and those likely to be most impacted was overwhelmingly against any restrictions to time limits already in place in Ballina and recommended no change.
Growing trend of ‘outings’ to Ballina’s CBD requires longer parking
Staff notes on the public consultation results presented to the Ballina Shire Council ordinary meeting in February said customer trips to Ballina’s CBD appeared to have changed in recent times to become ‘outings’, especially for ‘a growing elderly portion’ of the local population.
Outings could include meals at restaurants in the main streets as well as medical and hair appointments.
The trend in outings meant parking limited to half an hour wouldn’t meet demand.
Workers in the town centre weren’t impressed by suggestions for further time restrictions, citing concerns for safety having to walk to parking spots on the city centre’s fringe.
A letter from the Ballina Chamber of Commerce called, in part, for improved lighting in the area.
Staff recommended investigating funding options ‘for improved street lighting pathways connecting the CBD to unrestricted parking areas in fringe residential streets’.
Other suggestions from the public included annual parking fees and a new multi-storey carpark building in the CBD but staff said there wasn’t a budget for one that catered to existing users.
Annual and/or monthly paid parking permits ‘may be a cost-effective way of utilising the land,’ staff said but added further consideration was beyond the scope of their report and was a matter for individual landowners.
Not enough money for multi-storey carpark in Ballina CBD
Council staff said new multi-storey parking for 255 spaces at the back of the Wigmore Arcade featured in the Ballina Shire Parking Contributions Plan 2014 but there wasn’t enough money in the fund to pay for it yet.
The scheme wasn’t designed ‘to provide net additional parking supply for the Ballina CBD,’ staff said.
Rather, it was to pay for new carparks to compensate for those ‘unsupplied’ by developments with constrained space.
Developers were currently charged $31,635 per ‘unsupplied’ parking space, with $26,000 raised from the scheme in the financial year ending June 2023 and a total of $810,000 raised in the scheme’s ten-year period to date.
A 40% increase in cost expectations for the Wigmore Arcade carpark project since initial calculations ten years ago, coupled with current developer fees for ‘unsupplied’ spaces, meant the project was unlikely to start ‘in the foreseeable future’, staff said.
Predicted construction cost increases were based on NSW and QLD data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ non-building construction cost index.
Staff push for investigation of sensor technology
Public responses to the recommendation for in-ground parking sensors at some of the more popular spots in town were mostly against, although fewer than 200 responses were recorded overall.
Staff said much of the opposition was ‘attributed to high installation and maintenance costs of the devices and a preference to allocate available Council funds elsewhere’.
‘Issues of job losses, privacy, unfairness and unfriendliness were also a concern,’ staff noted.
But staff recommended further investigation of the option, citing efficiency.
They had already trialled ‘number plate recognition equipped vehicles’, they said, with increased use of the technology being integrated into the council’s parking enforcement program.
‘The use of technology for improving the cost efficiency and effectiveness of the Rangers compliance activities is an operational matter that has been under active investigation for some time by Council’s Public and Environmental Health Section,’ staff noted.
The report was delivered prior to this week’s announcement from NSW Minister for Finance Courtney Houssos regarding ticketless fines.
The minister released a statement saying she’d written to councils issuing ticketless fines asking them to return to issuing on-the-spot notes.
The Ballina Shire Council was recorded as having issued 473 ticketless fines in the financial year ending June 2023 but it’s unclear whether they are related to the trial staff referred to in February.
Meanwhile, investigations on sensors were ongoing, they said, with separate reporting to be presented later if sensors were ultimately recommended.
Cr Phillip Meehan spoke out against the increased use of technology for trying ‘to catch people out’.
‘I’ve reached a point in my life where I’m a little bit over that type of thing,’ Cr Meehan said, ‘not just in Ballina Shire but basically Australia, I’m really over it’.
Cr Meehan said he would like to see the reference to sensors removed from the motion but accepted it only called for investigation and a report rather than introduction.
Angled parking a winner
Ultimately, the only recommendation from the consultants’ report to receive majority support in public responses was for an introduction of angled parking in the CBD.
Support was attributed to ‘reducing wastage of space, providing more parking spaces, more orderly, efficient and easier parking,’ staff said.
‘Submissions opposing mostly considered line marking unnecessary and one submission considered line marking unsuitable for vehicles with trailers,’ staff noted.
The study limited its recommendation for angled parking to River Street and Tamar Street but staff recommended introducing it to Crane Street and connecting streets to the Ballina CBD.
The change would also require formal support from the council’s Local Traffic Committee, with Ballina Shire Council committees all including all regular councillors as well as the mayor.
Staff also recommended making no changes to parking time zones and councillors added in a recommendation to investigate the option of unrestricted parking in Tamar Street between Cherry and Martin Streets.
All councillors present ended up voting in favour of the recommendations as described except for Cr Meehan.
Mayor Sharon Cadwallader was absent from the vote.
Detailed figures and comments from the public submissions were available in agenda notes for the February ordinary council meeting.
