Maryborough Food Basket volunteers confused by CBD parking fines

Volunteers with disabilities have been left dumbfounded after they copped parking fines outside a low-cost grocery store, with street marking causing even more confusion.

Parking fines given out on Richmond St have left volunteers of the Food Basket confused.

A volunteer at a Maryborough charity has had a parking fine successfully waived after her and other disabled volunteers were left perplexed for receiving tickets while parking with disability tags.

The Maryborough Food Basket is a low-cost food club for concession card holders and pensioners, which costs only $6 for a year’s membership and $25 for five.

Situated on Richmond St, the Food Basket is run mostly by volunteers and is an employer of disabled people, meaning these individuals use the parking spaces out the front of the store, as the closest handicap spots are 200m down the road.

Karen Berry, a retired navy officer and now volunteer at the food club, was left confused after her disabled parking-permitted car was given a ticket in what was believed to be a two-hour area.

Another three volunteers were hit with fines in the same vicinity over the course of March.

Johnno, one of the many volunteers, stacks the shelves of Maryborough's Food Basket.

“Fining volunteers who are actively working to support the disadvantaged in the community is despicable,” she said.

“These fines are an aggressive deterrent to volunteers who may fear further penalties.”

The council eventually waived Ms Berry’s fine due to her disability permit.

A Fraser Coast Regional Council spokesperson confirmed residents with an Australian disabled parking permit could stay in spaces “for an unlimited time when the time limit shown on a sign is 30 minutes or more”.

“If the sign permits parking for 30 minutes or less, that is the maximum time allowed, even for permit holders.”

Confusion for the parking outside the Food Basket arises when white parking lines are clearly marked out, but are also overlapped by old, yellow loading zone lines.

A park on Richmond St where car park lines overlap yellow loading zone indicators.

While Ms Berry believes she was parked in a legitimate parking space, council said it was a loading zone.

“Parking in a loading zone would also result in a fine as disability permit conditions state,” the statement read.

Ms Berry said the fines would deter volunteers from helping a good cause, while also leaving some members of the community in social limbo.

“Ninety-eight per cent of the people who work at the FB are volunteers, many of whom would feel socially isolated without the human interaction experienced while volunteering there,” Karen said.

“The Food Basket could not continue to operate without volunteers.”

The Food Basket offers one free frozen meal to customers every day.

The store has a large following from residents and out-of-towners alike, with a membership number currently sitting at just under 10,000.

It also allows criminal offenders to complete their community service there, and assists all local schools to provide breakfast to students.

Originally published as Maryborough Food Basket volunteers confused by CBD parking fines