Mosman resident, business owner sick of boats hogging prime car parking in suburb

MOSMAN Council will start towing boats which have overstayed parking limits as a resident and business owner calls for parking restrictions in Cowles Rd.

Mosman office workers John MacGregor and Carol Pedersen are concerned about the number of boats taking up parking spaces around Memory Park. Picture: Annika Enderborg

A MOSMAN resident and business owner has called for Mosman Council to follow a Manly idea and introduce a 10-hour parking limit around Memory Park to discourage boats from parking long-term.

John MacGregor counted nine boats, two cars and one advertising trailer on Cowles Rd from his office on Thursday last week.

His business has been in Avenue Rd for about 10 years.

“The problem here is that they are just like flies on a sausage at a bush picnic,” he said.

“You can’t get in amongst them.

“I don’t mind people parking their boats and trailers outside their houses.

“But these owners, they must be living up in the gum trees.

“I would assume that they don’t live nearby, because there are more boat trailers than there are houses.

“I don’t know where they come from, but they are just clustered here.”

Boat trailers parked in Cowles Rd this month. Picture: Supplied

Mr MacGregor estimated that some boats had monopolised parking for “months”, making it difficult for office workers and families visiting the park.

“The thing that worries people in this office is that there are lots of mothers who bring young kids to the park, particularly after school,” he said.

“They used to be able to park on the side of the road there and just walk into the park.

“Now it’s jammed with boat trailers, so they have to park in adjoining streets and dodge the traffic along Cowles Rd, which is quite a busy street.

“So it makes it dangerous, as well as being inconvenient.

“We are always worried there will be a nasty accident out there somewhere.”

Mr MacGregor said he and two colleagues had even rescued a woman who had driven over a boat trailer hitch.

“The other thing that happens is the boat trailers, some of them, where the yacht attaches to a vehicle, they have got a ball that sticks up,” he said.

“Last year we had to go out and rescue a woman who was trying to park in amongst them because she ended up over a ball end and she could not get her car off.

“You can’t see where the ball joint is when you’re driving.

“We went out and lifted her car off the ball joint to get it off.

“So it’s a pain in the rear end of your car.”

A slashed boat trailer tyre in Rosebery St, Mosman.

Mr MacGregor complained to the council before state laws restricting on-street boat parking started in October last year.

The council can only impound a boat trailer if it has been in the same spot for 43 days.

But Mr MacGregor said “absolutely nothing” had changed.

“Since the law came in, in actual fact, it has become worse,” he said.

“There are more boats.”

A council spokeswoman said the council’s rangers ran a three-month educational campaign about the new boat parking laws and enforcement would begin next week.

“This campaign focused on particular streets to educate boat trailer owners of the new legislative changes,” she said.

“Parking is at a premium in Mosman and council is commencing enforcement action following last year’s resolution to minimise long-term parking of boat trailers in the same spots across the LGA.

“Rangers are following up on more than 40 customer requests currently lodged with council and this stage of the enforcement process will undoubtedly result in a number of boat trailers being impounded following the issuing of final notices.

“While councils’ rangers have observed boat trailers on streets around Memory Park they have not received customer requests relating to them.

“Residents concerned about unattended trailers are urged to contact Mosman Council’s rangers and lodge a request to have the boat trailer/s moved.”

Boats parked permanently in Middle Head Rd, Mosman in March 2011.

Mr MacGregor said Manly had a 10-hour parking limit near the Andrew “Boy” Charlton Swim Centre which solved its Kenneth Rd parking problems “virtually overnight”.

“The street was absolutely chock-a-block full of boats, trailers and other junk, which people had left there for months, forever,” he said.

“How they solved it was, they put up signs saying 10-hour parking only.

“So it meant you could not leave your boat there overnight or for too long and that cleared it up.”

Changes to the Impounding Act 1993, which started in Mosman on October 1, 2016, permit the council to impound boat trailers if the boat has been in the same place continuously for 28 days and after a further minimum 15 days’ notice from the council.

The legislation only applies to boat trailers.

BILL SHORTEN’S AWKWARD MOMENTS

The law means that no permits or time-limited approvals are allowed to be issued for boat trailers because of safety and limitations on available on-street parking.

The legislation does not allow for penalties or warnings. An owner is subject to fees if their boat trailer is impounded.