Sydney parking: Councillor Craig Chung’s proposal for free parking
Parking meters through Sydney’s CBD could be shut down each weekend as part of the city’s post COVID-19 recovery effort. But not everyone is supportive of the proposal.
Central Sydney
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Imagine cruising into the city on a Sunday afternoon to park outside your favourite restaurant or bar and walk straight in, without throwing a parking ticket on the car’s dash?
This could soon become a reality with a City of Sydney councillor championing calls to turn off parking meters every weekend to help devastated businesses fight for survival as the grip of the COVID-19 pandemic loosens.
Liberal councillor Craig Chung told Central Sydney despite the relaxing of social distancing restrictions, crowds of shoppers haven’t yet flocked back to the city ready to spend.
Despite Sydney packing an enviable list of top tier dining options and tourist attractions, Mr Chung says the city is “terribly quiet” and is leading calls to turn off parking meters on weekends.
“I want to help small businesses as much as I can,” he said. “The city can afford to turn the meters off for a couple of days. It would be a strong signal that Sydney is open for business.”
A City of Sydney spokeswoman said parking meter revenue totalled $32.5 million for the 2019-2020 financial year, with parking rangers encouraged to be “flexible” when handing out parking fines during the pandemic peak.
Parking enforcement helps us manage issues of safety and risk and helps us encourage drivers to move on, to ensure our limited street parking is fairly distributed,” she said. “This is essential for both our residents and our local businesses that require parking turnover.
“When the government eased social distancing restrictions last year, residents and businesses asked us to resume enforcing parking restrictions, to ensure fair turnover of available parking.”
Business Sydney executive director Katherine O’Regan said the hospitality, tourism, entertainment and accommodation industries are continuing to suffer and need vital support.
However, she said a parking meter blackout was not the answer.
“Bringing more cars into the city isn’t the answer, however, it could be one of the ways to flatten the peak hour curve by introducing parking incentives during off-peak times," she said.
“Encouraging the use of all forms of active and public transport to bring foot traffic into the CBD will help struggling businesses and avoid more congestion on our already busy roads.”
Mr Chung’s free weekend parking proposal wouldn’t allow for unlimited parking, with rangers to enforce time limits to make sure there is a turnover of vehicles.
The councillor said the initiative should be in place until the end of the year, before being reviewed.
The proposal will be raised at the next council meeting.
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