Gold Coast parking fines to skyrocket after city council launches safety crackdown

Parking fines are about to rise sharply on the Gold Coast as the council reviews infringement notices during a safety crackdown.

PARKING fees are about to skyrocket to more than $550 on the Gold Coast as the council reviews infringement notices in a crackdown for safety reasons.

The Bulletin can reveal councillors met in a closed session where they discussed a range of penalties in the first parking review by the council since 2014.

Gold Coast City Council is reviewing its parking plan.

A report to council found the city’s parking infringements are set at $80, which compares to $89 in Logan to $133 in Redlands. Brisbane’s general parking fines are set at $100.

Councillors were offered three choices — fees for general parking offences increasing from $80 to $82, to $92 or $103. A recommendation shows they supported the second mid-range option.

But on the category of disabled parking offences, the only option offered was to increase the fees from the current amount of $333 to $551 — ensuring the city fell into line with others.

A council spokesperson told the Bulletin: “Parking infringement penalty unit amounts have been reviewed to align with other SEQ local governments and to apportion higher penalty amounts to offences that have a higher community safety risk.

“The current parking infringement penalty unit amounts range from 0.6 ($82) to 2.5 ($344) penalty units.

“The proposed parking infringement penalty unit amounts will range from 0.67 ($92) to 4 ($551) penalty units for parking in a disabled parking space without a valid permit. The proposed amendments will affect 58 per cent of the different types of parking offences.”

The report said the Gold Coast City Council was aligning the offence amount for parking a vehicle illegally in a disabled area to the maximum penalty now available under the State Penalty Enforcement Regulation.

“Some councils have commenced changing their local laws to also match this penalty, with both Redlands and Logan already increasing their penalties to this amount,” the report said.

Council parking zones across the Gold Coast.

Officers noted that the Coast fees for motorists who fail to pay parking fees was equal to Logan and the city was still the lowest for overstaying time limits.

Other minor changes including extending parking areas for the Southern Traffic Area near the Gold Coast Airport and Stadium Residential Area for Metricon Stadium at Carrara.

New off-street regulated parking areas have been included in the schedule.

They include Hall Park, Marine Parade, Southport, Pioneer Park, at Marine Parade, Labrador, Ronnie Long Park, on the Gold Coast Highway, Palm Beach, Robina Station Reserve at Robina Town Centre Drive, and Service Road, at Karp Court, Bundall.

“The City periodically makes changes to its off-street regulated carparking schedule during local law amendments. The inclusion of these areas within the local law will ensure the city can effectively and efficiently manage its off-street carparking assets in the future,” a council spokesperson said.

Councillors at a transport committee meeting on Monday will receive a presentation from officers on the Draft City Parking Plan 2021-2031.

The presentation includes a report which predicts the city’s population will increase by 28 per cent in the next ten years with more than 174,000 people arriving in the region.

Cars parked outside Broadbeach Bowls Club, signalling a development wave in the Gold Coast beachfront suburb.

“Car ownership is expected to grow by 32 per cent or 198,000 vehicles,” the presentation report said.

The city’s challenges included “the cost of free parking’, improving kerbside parking and embracing new digital technology.

The council is to receive a final report on the parking changes in November with the plan to get the laws gazetted a month later and the penalties to go “live” in March next year.

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