‘Outrageous’: Here’s where to find Sydney’s most profitable meter

Sydney’s highest-earning parking meters are pulling in lofty six-figure salaries for Clover Moore’s council. Here’s where drivers are paying the most to park — and how much a single machine collects in a year.

Clover Moore’s City of Sydney council is raking in millions of dollars from street parking meters, it can be revealed, but the Lord Mayor has been asked to forsake the revenue goldmine to help revitalise the city.

The Sunday Telegraph can reveal the City of Sydney’s highest earning parking meters raised more than $180,000 each last financial year, as part of a whopping $41.5 million in parking revenue raised across the city.

The highest earning parking meter last financial year was on Hickson Rd in Dawes Point, with meter number 22240 raising almost $190,000 in revenue to June 30.

Meters along Hickson Road — home to ritzy restaurants, performance theatres, hotels and lookouts — earned almost $2.6 million in total.

Crown St in Surry Hills was the second-highest-earning street, at $1.3 million, with Sussex St in the city coming in third at $1.2 million.

Sarah Saelens, with her son Louan, pays for parking at meter 22240 which collected around $190,000 in the last financial year. Picture: Richard Dobson

A City of Sydney spokeswoman confirmed that revenue raised from streetside parking meters covered the cost of maintaining the meters, which this financial year will cost $3.7 million.

But there are now calls for Ms Moore’s council to cut the cost of parking to help revitalise the city.

“Nobody expects free parking, however, some of these roads are paved in gold,” NRMA spokesman Peter Khoury said.

“Charging premium rates for people to park on the street and then charging them to cover the councils administration costs is a business model that would be the envy of every rate-paying business in the CBD.

“We want people to come into the city and spend their money in local businesses, not on council administration costs.”

Business Sydney Executive Director Paul Nicolaou slammed high parking fees as a “de facto congestion tax” on the city.

“Most people just cannot come into the city because it is to expensive, and one of the things that is driving business away from the city is the cost of parking,” he said.

Motorists parked on Sydney’s highest-earning street this week were outraged at the amount of money raised by a single meter.

Most had forked out $16.40, the maximum amount, for two hours of parking.

Adam Lung, with his daughters Matilda and Charlotte, feeds the meter. Picture: Richard Dobson

Sarah Saelens, 41, was taking her one-year-old son Louan to one of the kids’ colouring events at the nearby Sydney Festival.

When told the meter she had used racked up a whopping $187,872.20 in the last financial year, she said it made her angry.

“I didn’t realise how much money (the machine) was making. (Parking) is always expensive, but almost $200,000,” the Cremorne local said.

Luke Hall, 60, works as a contractor for Flick Pest Control and said he was constantly paying for parking around the Harbour City due to a lack of loading zones.

“It makes my job extremely hard every day, and a lot of the parking comes out of my pocket,” the Caringbah local said.

“This year alone I’ve probably (spent) $120 (on parking), and it’s only the 15th (of January) today. It’s ridiculous.”

Mr Hall believes a reasonable amount to pay for parking would be between $1 to $1.50 an hour.

“They’re taking money away from people trying to live a life. It shouldn’t be allowed.”

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Originally published as ‘Outrageous’: Here’s where to find Sydney’s most profitable meter