Charles Sturt Council disagrees with Labor’s paid parking Bill

The state government’s controversial paid parking legislation has again hit strife with councils revealing concerns about how it will affect their relationships with ratepayers.

The state’s councils fear Labor’s planned paid-parking legislation would put them on a collision course with developers and ratepayers, according to a Local Government Association survey.

The LGA has surveyed all councils about the state government’s plan to give their chief executive officers final decision-making powers about introducing parking charges in suburban shopping centres.

In its response, Charles Sturt Council – home to Westfield West Lakes, which has already introduced paid parking – said it feared the proposed legislation would hurt its relationship with ratepayers.

“Given the precedence at (West Lakes) for paid parking beyond the initial three-hour grace period, it would be likely that the landowner would apply to the City of Charles Sturt to continue its current paid parking scheme,” the council said in its response to the survey.

“This will, however, place the council in a difficult position as it is already known that public sentiment for this scheme is very negative and therefore it would seem appropriate to not approve such an application without the requirement to undertake community consultation.

“This refusal would likely be faced by legal challenge, given the precedence in place.”

Charles Sturt said it did not support the legislation, adding that private landowners should be able to decide for themselves if they should charge for parking and that shoppers would then vote with their feet.

In their endorsed response, Charles Sturt’s councillors said they recognised that “paid parking is an impost on communities”.

Clinton Jury, state manager SA/NT for the Australian Institute of Company Directors. AAP Image/Brenton Edwards

LGA SA chief executive Clinton Jury said it was working with other councils in the state to finalise a position on whether to support the proposed amendment.

“There are several areas of consideration which we will work on with the state government over the coming days and weeks,” he said.

“(These include) improvements on the operation of the Bill and whether decision-making on paid parking in shopping centres should be the responsibility of councils or sit elsewhere.”

Disallowing paid parking at shopping centres larger than 34,000sqm became a key Labor promise from the March state election.

It emerged as Westfield proposed to introduce paid parking at its Tea Tree Plaza site – a move slammed by residents.

But Labor’s introduction of the legislation was also criticised, with the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Association questioning how the government could legislate to stop private businesses from introducing paid parking but then charge for parking at state hospital sites.