Vandals inflict 90K of damage to parking meters in Byron Bay

Police are pouring through CCTV to find vandals who caused around $90,000 worth of damage to dozens of parking meters.

MOST people don’t enjoy paying for parking, but it appears some dislike it more than others. Vandals have caused around $90,000 worth of damage to parking meters in Byron Bay, leaving police pouring over CCTV to find the culprits.

Twenty-seven parking meters were badly damaged in the town’s CBD on Monday January 21 around the Main Beach carpark, the Lawson St carpark, Marvel St, Fletcher St, and Byron St.

Screens were slashed, coin slots were superglued and spray-paint was used to damage 27 parking metres in Byron Bay on January 21. Photo: Byron Shire Council

The Echo Net Daily reported super glue was poured into the coin and card slots to stop people from paying, while a sharp object was used to slashed instruction labels on the machines.

The screens on the meters were also spray painted with the words ‘Byron Lib Tribe’ next to a number of the damaged machines, leading to suspicions the damage may have been done deliberately to ‘liberate’ Byron Bay.

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A Council spokeswoman said the scale of the vandalism was “unusual” and left the machines out of order for three days, costing thousands in unpaid parking revenue.