Salisbury Council parking fine spree panned Mawson Lakes Chamber of Commerce

MAWSON Lakes Chamber of Commerce says motorists are being unfairly slugged with parking fines as Salisbury Council seeks to raise extra revenue.

MAWSON Lakes Chamber of Commerce says northern suburbs motorists are being unfairly slugged with parking fines as Salisbury Council seeks to raise extra revenue.

Chamber president Bill Morris has called on the council to instead issue warnings to motorists caught overstaying 30-minute, one-hour and two-hour parking limits in Mawson Lakes.

More than 1300 fines were handed out to people caught overstaying time limits of up to two hours in Mawson Lakes and Salisbury city centre.

Do you think the council is being overzealous with parking fines? Leave your comment below.

Mr Morris said it was pure revenue raising by the council.

“Parking inspectors come down and issue infringements from time to time, but when I go out into the street more than half the parks are vacant for people to use,” Mr Morris said.

“The underlying rationale of parking fines is to regulate parking so there are spaces available on a rotating bases when someone needs it.

“What I am dismayed with is parking fines being issued to people when there’s still at least 50 per cent of parks still vacant so it’s just money raising – why can’t they just issue warnings?”

The tickets were $46 each.

However, Mayor Gillian Aldridge said the crackdown came in response to traders’ feedback that customers were having difficulty finding on-street parking.

Bellezza Gourmet Chicken owner Bob Dahdah was among those to contact the council about introducing half-hour limits outside his shop on Goodall Pde, Mawson Lakes.

He said the restrictions – installed two years ago – had helped his business.

“A lot of the shop owners on this strip were really struggling with a lot of uni students who were parking their cars outside our shops for days, even whole weeks,” Mr Dahdah said.

“I was losing a lot of business because my customers try to pull up but can’t find a park so they just drive away to the next shop, which isn’t good for us to survive.

“We asked the council to do something about it and since they put in the parking restrictions, it’s helped us a lot.”

The council issued 4421 parking fines across the district during 2013/14, totalling $310,000.

The number of fines was up 20 per cent on the year before, when the council raised $263,000.

Salisbury City Centre Business Association chief executive Chris McDonald said he believed staff working for businesses in the city centre were copping the most fines.

He said promoting and educating businesses on other unrestricted parking areas would fix parking problems in Salisbury.

“We’re in discussions with the council about talking with the traders and their staff to educate them about using the bigger, unrestricted car parks behind the Mental Health building on Park Tce and the one behind Eureka Tavern on Paternoster Rd, instead,” Mr McDonald said.

“This will provide the traders and their staff with a solution for short term parking concerns while freeing up parks for customers.”

Mr McDonald said while the parking fines were warranted, the

Playford Council also recorded a spike in parking fines. It issued 7449 infringements in 2013/14, compared with 7055 in the previous year.

Do you think the council is being overzealous with parking fines? Leave your comment below.