Police seek extra parking, but councillor says take a ‘walk’

POLICE in Lismore CBD have outgrown their parking allocation and now want to expand.

Lismore police are looking for more dedicated parking for their vehicles.

LISMORE City Council will review the Richmond Police District's request for more dedicated parking as part of their carparking strategy review.

Under item TAC81/20, the traffic advisory committee had recommended council support the request from NSW police to grant five dedicated parking spaces at 40 Molesworth St which would be "trialled for a period of 12 months, pending results from the planned CBD carparking study."

However, council voted to reject that proposal and will instead refer the proposal to the carparking strategy review.

Councillor Ekins said that if council allowed this proposal, it would disadvantage residents wanting to go to the CBD.

"I don't see that we should vary at all for these people here, who already have a lot of parking, they can walk like the rest of us," Cr Ekins said.

"If we give the police dedicated parking, a whole lot of it outside the police office, we can do it for the dentist, we can do it for the chemist, we can do it for all the medical practices downtown, you just wait and see those applications come pouring in."

In a statement to the Traffic Advisory Commission, the police indicated that their resources were outgrowing their allocated area and needed more space.

"The building has an area at the rear for limited secure parking which they have outgrown as the demand for their services across the district has resulted in more specialised officers being accommodated in Lismore. This area is also used to accommodate our rescue trucks that provide an invaluable emergency service to the Richmond district but are large and take up the majority of this area.

"The parking spaces were previously allocated exclusively to Lismore Police Station but have since become public parking spaces with a 2P parking limit. As such we are seeking to have the parking spaces at 40 Molesworth Street reassigned to police parking only for the exclusive use of marked and unmarked police vehicles attached to Richmond Police District."

The review is due to be released by mid-2021.

Councillors Moorhouse, Marks and Bird voted against the motion while Councillors Ekins, Casson, Lloyd, Cook and Guise were in favour.