Leichhardt Council considers spending $30,000 to advertise free car park which sits mostly empty

MOTORISTS are proving too lazy to walk one hundred metres from a free car park to local shops so the facility is left mostly empty in one of the city’s highest density suburbs.

free car park

SYDNEY’S best kept parking secret has forced Leichhardt Council to consider spending $30,000 advertising a free car park in Rozelle to boost patronage.

A lucky door prize is one of the ideas put forward to increase use of the car park.

In a part of the city where parking is a premium and tempers are known to fray as people jockey for the few free spots available, a council car park at 85 Victoria Rd sits relatively empty.

Council officers have rep­orted numbers as low as three cars in the 19-space carpark.

Motorists don’t want to walk the 100 metres to Darling St. Picture: Craig Wilson

The car park costs $68,000 a year to lease and is being paid for out of $1.276 million compensation given to council by Roads and Maritime Services when it created a weekend clearway on Victoria Rd, reducing the number of car spaces. Council has agreed to print flyers to be distributed to markets and businesses to alert people to the free parking.

It is considering the installation of a digital sign on Darling St to indicate how many car spaces are available with sensors and signage costing about $30,000.

Labor Councillor Simon Emsley suggested a lucky door prize might be a good way to attract motorists to the under-utilised car park.

“We need to do something,” he said.

Mr Emsley said people looked for conven­ience and they may not want to walk the hundred metres or so back to Darling St.

Greens councillor Rochelle Porteous said the $68,000 being spent annually on the lease of the car park could be put to better use.

Only a few people take advantage of this free car park on Victoria Rd. Picture: Craig Wilson

Leichhardt mayor Darcy Byrne said council had negotiated the compensation from RMS to support businesses in Victoria Rd that could be affected by the clearway. He said after leasing the car park for two years, council needed to bump up patronage.

Mr Byrne said drivers trawling Darling St may not be aware of the free spaces around the corner.

Council claimed compensation from RMS for the provision of other public parking for the owners and patrons of businesses affected by the clearway extension. RMS leased the site as a public car park for 14 months until the end of 2014.

A Memorandum of Understanding between RMS and council was signed and RMS paid council $1.276 million to go towards public parking for this area of Victoria Rd.

Council entered into a lease of the site for a three-year term expiring on Dec­ember 31, 2017 at an initial rent of $68,500.