Paid parking for Lismore Base Hospital precinct as council chases revenue

Council will charge Lismore Hospital workers to park near the facility, while also turning up the heat on the state government to provide off-street parking.

Paid parking will return to the Lismore Hospital precinct, with nurses, doctors and patients to cough up $2 a day on Hunter and Dalzeil streets from November 7.

Parking controls had previously been relaxed to support frontline health workers, but now that the pandemic has eased, council wants to nett the some $80,000 a year in revenue the precinct brought in.

“We’re now moving into a world where Covid-19 is changing, we’re going to have to live with it rather than quarantine everybody,” councillor Darlene Cook said.

Ms Cook, who tabled the motion, said a hospital worker union representative told her that if retail workers had to pay for parking near their place of employment, then “hospital workers will do so also”.

“I believe it’s time for us to go back to our former practice of having the paid parking controls within the hospital precinct,” she said.

Paid parking will return to the Lismore Base Hospital precinct from November 7.

Four-hour parking restrictions will also be enforced on Weaver St, Laurel Ave and McKenzie St from November 7.

There is an increasing demand for parking in the precinct, Cr Cook said, with 100 hospital staff being relocated from the CBD to the Lismore Base Hospital.

“That’s well over 100 cars per day trying to find parking up at the hospital,” she said.

Lismore City Council will write to the Department of Health, the Premier, the Health Minster and the state Member for Lismore to lobby for a parking station to be built at hospital (as was promised as part of the base hospital expansion).

“The NSW Department of Health keeps ignoring our pleas to provide off street parking,” Ms Cook said.

“We’ve asked them about four times … they have to come to the party, they have to provide more parking opportunities in the precinct for their staff.”

Cr Big Rob spoke against the paid parking motion, saying it was not right to charge frontline workers to pay to go to work.

“The things they do for us, I think we can give them a bit of parking,” he said.

The motion was passed, with councillors Bird, Gordon, Colby, Ekins, Cook, Bing and Krieg voting for a return of paid parking.

Councillor Rob voted against.