Parking Free-For-All Cutting Up The Coffers

By Duncan Horscroft on January 1, 2014 in News

It’s a fair bet the Bronte Cutting went viral on many websites when the news of free parking at Bronte Beach was announced to all and sundry.

Free parking at Bronte Beach? Yes, you got it right.

A great cash cow for Waverley Council in the past, the cutting was, at time of publication, well overdue to have parking meters installed.

A flyer sent out to residents outlined the plan to resurface the road and then install the meters.

According to the council flyer this exercise was only going to take one week, but more than one month later it was open slather for all who wanted to park there!

It was a bonus for visitors who didn’t have to part with their hard-earned to spend a day at Bronte. It was also a pain in the butt for locals who found it extremely difficult to park near their beloved beach because of the demand.

The problem was the so-called ‘state-of-the-art’ meters, which apparently were shipped from France and were held up for delivery.

Ooh la, la! Obviously the companies making parking meters in Australia were not good enough for the council, which had to turn to Froggie Land to help in the quest for even more parking revenue.

When the new parking plans were announced there was a lot of innuendo surrounding beach pass holders, with suggestions locals would be put on a time limit and only allocated certain parking bays.

But a council spokesperson has denied this categorically.

“Beach Parking Permit holders will continue to be able to park anywhere in the car park for free… by entering the registration of their permitted vehicle into a parking meter,” the spokesperson said.

“If the meter does not recognise your vehicle registration prior to receiving your new Beach Parking Permit card, you can display your current card on your dashboard.“

This should prove an interesting exercise for the older members of the community who are not au fait with the wonders of modern French technology.

According to the council spokesperson, Bronte visitors who don’t have a Beach Parking Permit will be not face time restrictions when the meters are installed.

“There will be no time restrictions when the meters are installed. Motorists will pay by the hour from 9am, up to a maximum of $15.00 if they park for five hours or more. This means for people that stay less than five hours, parking will be cheaper,” he said.

There was a suggestion these meters would not be operational until the end of summer, because of the technology still needed to get up to scratch.

In the interim, though, it’s been an early Christmas present for many and a not-so-happy one for the council coffers.

Let’s hope there is not a get square in the form of some other revenue-raising plan to make up for lost coin.

Sacre bleu!