Byron Shire residents will be required to pay $55 a year for a parking permit as of July 1, after councillors voted to reintroduce the fee at last week’s meeting.
Less than a year after the permits were abolished by former Mayor Michael Lyon in an attempt to appease those impacted by the introduction of parking meters in Brunswick Heads, it has returned and looks set to stay.
Pensioners and the holders of Centrelink and student concession cards will be exempt from the permit fees.
To fund admin and infrastructure
The main argument made in favour of reintroducing the fee at last week’s meeting was that the revenue was needed to pay for the administration of the permit system, and to help fund other Council programs, including basic infrastructure works.
The meeting heard that abolishing the permit fees in September last year had already cost Council in excess of $400,000, and that it would likely forego $825,000 a year if this continued.
This did not include the parking revenue lost as a result of the free permits.
‘The paid parking scheme in Byron as it existed from 2015 to September 2024… worked smoothly, efficiently, for the better part of nine years,’ said Deputy Mayor Jack Dods (Independent), who moved the motion to reintroduce the fees, along with Mayor Sarah Ndiaye.
‘It created a pool of money to administer the resident parking permits, which meant that the money generated by paid parking was set aside for improvement works in Byron and other places in the Shire, outside of Byron Bay.
‘I understand that the free permits were brought in as a carrot to help alleviate the pain that some residents were fearful of when Brunswick Heads got paid parking.
‘That said, I think the system as it currently exists has a lot of holes, and the previous system worked much better. We need that extra money to pay the admin costs, and whatever is left over can be spent on improvements to our towns and villages.’
The arguments made by councillors Dods and Ndiaye were enough to convince a bare majority of councillors to support reintroducing the permit fee, but there was strong opposition from Labor and the other independent councillors.
Labor Cr Asren Pugh said that the only reason why residents had accepted parking meters in Brunswick Heads was the promise that they could get a free permit and would therefore not have to pay for parking.
‘It was a decision by the Council to alleviate resident concerns,’ Cr Pugh said.
‘And these were not just from people in Brunswick Heads, they were from Mullum and Ocean Shores, people who use Brunswick Heads because it is a beautiful, wonderful place to go.’
However, the meeting heard that the Brunswick Heads Progress Association which had previously supported the abolition of the permit fees, now supported their reintroduction.
Progress association in support
‘The Brunswick Heads Progress Association supports the reintroduction of the $55 fee for paid parking permits in the Byron Shire, as clearly Byron Shire Council doesn’t have the funds to enforce compliance of paid parking in Brunswick Heads,’ association representative Leone Bolt said.
‘Yes, the waiver of the fee… was the carrot that got paid parking over the line in Brunswick Heads.
‘At the time our association supported this move. However, by the time paid parking was being implemented we were changing our mind because our town was run down, degraded, and overrun by van lifers.’
But the Brunswick Heads Chamber of Commerce took a different view.
In a submission read out during last week’s meeting, the Chamber called for the abolition of permit fees to be delayed until business data supporting the proposal had been released to the public, and until Mullumbimby and Bangalow had been properly assessed for the introduction of paid parking so that Brunswick Heads wasn’t ‘unfairly targeted’.
‘We’re not here to oppose everything that Council puts forward, we’re asking for a fair go,’ Chamber representative, Peter Harvey said.
‘Some of you know what it’s like to run a small business. The fragility is real. We want a pause so that when change comes it’s backed by evidence, fairness and proper process.’
Cr Ndiaye (Greens) acknowledged that reintroducing permit fees would not be popular among some in the Shire, but said that the change was necessary.
‘Of course it’s not fun, and I’m obviously getting abuse from every angle online at the moment,’ Cr Ndiaye said.
‘But the cost of the permit is equivalent to half a tank of petrol. It’s not that much to contribute for people to have better disability access, and better curbs and guttering. This money gets invested into the towns where people live and valuing those permits is about valuing our community and the privilege of having a car and driving it into the middle of town.’
‘I’ll take the flak’, says Mayor Ndiaye
‘I’ll take the flak, because I know what it means to be able to do the projects that we want to do. We all have dreams for this place, and this is just one way that helps to contribute to those dreams.’
Council also voted to reintroduce permits for non-resident ratepayers and those living in towns which border the Shire.
For the past eight months, the members of these groups have had to pay the standard hourly parking meter rate.
These permits will cost $110 a year.
All Greens councillors and Cr Dods voted in favour, while Crs Lyon, Pugh, Swain and Warth voted against.
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