Canterbury Hospital: Neighbours rally against timed parking
More than 500 Campsie and Belmore residents could face fines for simply parking their cars outside of their homes if proposed changes to Canterbury Hospital parking are adopted.
The Express
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More than 500 Campsie and Belmore residents could face fines for simply parking their cars outside of their homes if proposed changes to Canterbury Hospital parking are adopted.
The proposal has been met with ire from residents, causing sixty of them to band together in an effort to diplomatically shoot it down.
About 530 properties will not be exempt if 2-hour timed parking is introduced across nine streets in Campsie and Belmore. This means residents could face fines of $112 if they park for longer than two hours on any day between 10am to 8pm.
The proposed change is one avenue Canterbury-Bankstown Council is exploring in the hope of relieving traffic congestion around the hospital, but the collective of sixty residents believe an empty on-site car park should be used first.
Belmore local Dennis Markou led the collective of residents at a meeting to discuss the proposed changes. Present were Canterbury-Bankstown councillors Philip Madirazza and Linda Eisler.
“Some people don’t have driveways and everyone has more than one car. There are a couple of houses that don’t even have a driveway at all, so they need to park on the street,” Mr Markou said.
”There’s spaces available but hospital staff don’t want to pay (Wilson Parking) when they can park in the streets around the hospital for free.”
Eight months earlier in November of 2017, the residents held a meeting to discuss parking alternatives. It was settled that the local council would liaise with the State government to see if the staff at Canterbury Hospital could be given free parking at two of its “always empty” car parks.
To date, it doesn’t appear any progress has been made on this resolution. Instead, the Council mailed out questionnaires to the residents asking them to give feedback on the proposed parking changes.
“The proposed parking restrictions will apply to all vehicles, including residents, utilising on-street parking in the surrounding streets of Canterbury Hospital,” the letter mailed out to residents reads.
Questions were put to the two councillors who attended the residents meeting. Cnr Madirazza said that parking permits might not even be an ideal solution for the residents.
“Permit parking is somewhat difficult and would add costs to residents, and permits would be limited per household,” he said.
“Council may need to find other ways to ease pressure, such as where suitable, rear to kerb parking to create more spaces.”
Councillor Madirazza said he is in the process of lobbying to make parking at Canterbury Hospital free for staff. “(It) would ease pressure on congestion and would also ease the extra cost for parking for our valuable hospital staff.”
Canterbury-Bankstown Council is no longer accepting responses to the questionnaire, while residents plan to meet again later in the year for an update.
The nine streets that would be affected by the parking proposal are:
- Thorncraft Parade, Campsie
- Fletcher Street, Campsie
- Beaumont Street, Campsie
- McKern Street, Campsie
- Claremont Street, Campsie
- Fitzroy Street, Campsie
- McKenzie Street, Campsie
- Palmer Street, Belmore
- Tudor Street, Belmore