Parking meters to be switched off at night to revive inner west

PARKING meters across the inner west will be turned off from 7pm every night from next month under moves to revive local restaurant and shopping scene.

Con Damouras from Bar Italia, Maurice Portelli from Mezzapica Cafe, and Darcy Byrne and Mark Chapman from the Royal Hotel are backing the parking metre changes. Picture: John Appleyard

PARKING meters across the inner west will be turned off from 7pm every night from next month under moves to revive the region’s restaurant and shopping scenes.

Inner West councillors have backed a proposal to allow free evening parking from April 5 in Norton St, Leichhardt and Darling St in Balmain and Rozelle.

“A debacle” and “fiasco” were just some of the words councillors used to describe the introduction of the metres in the first place, which some local businesses have credited to a downturn in trade.

The metres currently operate 8am to 10pm, seven days per week. Over the last five years, the number of paid tickets issued — reflecting people visiting the shopping strips — has fallen from 25,000 per month to 19,000.

“Turning the metres off is good news and I think they should be removed entirely,” said Liberal Deputy Mayor Julie Passas.

“The metres should never have been put there in the first place.”

In 2013 Leichhardt became the first council in Sydney to have permanent 30 minute free parking on all its main streets. Then Leichhardt mayor Darcy Byrne, Mezzapica Cafe’s Domenic Nigro, councillors Frank Breen and Simon Emsley and deputy mayor Linda Kelly.

Labor Mayor Darcy Byrne, who put forward the changes, said further consultation with residents will be carried out along with a review by council staff.

But a sticking point for the council has been the estimated hit to annual budgets. At least $732,000 would be lost from metre revenue and $366,000 from fines.

Cr Byrne ruled out a proposal put forward by council staff to apply fees on 14,500 resident parking permits to cover this loss — a scenario he likened to “robbing Peter to pay Paul”.

“The purpose of the policy was to boost our local businesses and turn around some of the negative talk about the shopping strips,” he said.

“It certainly wasn’t my intention to increase parking fees elsewhere to deliver that commitment.”

IN OTHER NEWS

The changes are meanwhile expected to place pressure on other councils that rake in millions of dollars in parking machine revenue each year.

This includes the City of Sydney which earned $38.4 million over the last 12 months — the largest of any council in NSW.

Con Damouras, the owner of Leichhardt institution Bar Italia, is hoping the changes will bring a much-needed boost to Norton St.

He previously told the Courier he believed Sydney’s rising living costs were driving customers elsewhere.

“People simply can’t afford to fork out additional money on parking, so we are finding people are going to places like Concord, where there are no parking meters at all,” he said.

“This policy will be a massive relief for businesses in the area — customers will no longer have to rush and can soak up the entire experience,” he said.

Forking out

OFFICE of State Revenue figures show Inner West Council raked in $5.9 million in parking fees in the former Leichhardt council area last year.

The figure was $6.7 million in Marrickville while Ashfield — which does not have parking machines — earned $1.4 million.

There are 91 parking machine spaces in Norton St and 108 in Darling St.

The changes approved at last night’s meeting will not apply to the 26 parking machines in Newtown. Local business groups previously supported retaining them.

Inner West Council is also considering extending the 30 minute free parking measures in Balmain, Leichhardt and Rozelle.