Locals Take Back Seat To Council Revenue

By Duncan Horscroft on November 29, 2013 in News

Local councils in the Eastern Suburbs aren’t doing much to endear themselves to the locals in their quest to raise more revenue.

Take Waverley Council, for instance, with its Bronte Cutting car park ‘upgrade’.

The council notified residents in the form of an information brochure outlining what work was to be undertaken from Monday, November 11.

It said the car park would be closed “for up to a week to enable the upgrade”, which included resurfacing, removing the booth and boom gates and installing ten parking meters.

What they failed to mention was what compensation residents would receive while they had no access to the parking facilities in the cutting during the upgrade.

A lot of elderly locals look forward to their regular morning swim and the lack of parking forced many to abandon their daily ritual.

As usual the timing of the roadworks was impeccable. Not content with taking advantage of the winter months when parking was at a low ebb, the council opted to undertake the work a little over a month after the swimming season had started.

Sculpture By The Sea was another imposition on locals who could not enjoy the luxury of a day at the beach because the sculptures took up most of the sand.

A further black mark on Waverley Council is the introduction of a minimum $1 charge to park in Eastgate Shopping Centre. It’s interesting to note that all the pay stations have a Waverley Council logo on them.

And Randwick Council is not without fault either. The filming of the latest soapie, Wonderland, at Coogee Beach has had residents fuming.

“I was sitting on the wall at north Coogee enjoying the sun, when I was ordered to move by a member of the film crew,” one resident told The Beast.

“It’s outrageous that you are told to move at your own beach because of a bloody TV show.”

So come on councils, instead of putting your hand out to grab all the revenue these projects raise, how about giving something back to the locals who bear the brunt of any inconvenience?