Revealed: Car parking changes see new time limits and fees across city beach locations

Motorists will be paying $21 for a four-hour park in Surfers Paradise and face more fees and reduced time at popular hot spots like Burleigh Heads, under major council carparking reforms.

Motorists will be paying $21 for a four-hour park in Surfers Paradise and face more fees and reduced time at popular hotspots such as Burleigh Heads under major council carparking reforms.

The Bulletin can reveal the changes, which will also affect the Southport CBD and Broadbeach, will be introduced in February.

Parking at Burleigh Headland. Picture: Jerad Williams.

Officers conducted research and obtained feedback from councillors in a bid to ensure kerbside spaces were “within the optimum range of 60 to 80 per cent” usage.

While Surfers Paradise is yet to recover from the Covid downturn the CBD in Southport faces more demand for spots.

Key parking changes include:

* The removal of the 30-minute free parking in Surf Parade, Broadbeach; increasing the maximum length of stay from one hour to two hours; also increased stays west of Albert Avenue, fees going to $3.60 an hour.

Vehicles, many of them from tradies, lined up along Surf Parade at Broadbeach on the Gold Coast.

* New paid parking along the eastern portion of Goodwin Terrace between Rudd Park and Goodwin Terrace carpark at Burleigh Heads. Hourly fee of $1.50 and a maximum stay of three hours. At John Laws Park, the maximum stay will be reduced from three to two hours.

* Southport will have progressive pricing in the existing on-street parking spaces of $2.90 per hour for up to two hours, and $4.40 for two to four hours with a maximum stay of four at $14.60. These locations include Nind, Davenport, Hinze, Nerang and Lawson streets and Seabank Lane.

* In Surfers Paradise, retaining an hourly fee of $4.20 for one to two hours, $6.30 for two to four hours, and increase to $21 for a maximum stay of four hours. This will occur at View Ave, the Esplanade, Cavill Ave, Hanlan St, Peninsula Dr, and Appel, Trickett, Laycock and Clifford streets.

Tradies arriving for work at a tower site off Surf Parade at Broadbeach on the Gold Coast.

Southport-based councillor Brooke Patterson told the Bulletin: “The parking demand in Southport has shifted. There is more demand for all-day parking.

“On-street parking is at 55 per cent capacity in Southport, and most of that demand is in the all-day parking category. These changes simplify parking products in the CBD, so we deliver what the consumer wants, at a price they find acceptable.”

A council officer’s report found the CBD in 2021 recorded a 15 per cent increase in parking demand compared to pre-Covid conditions, helped by all-day, on-street parking fees.

“Parking demand in Surfers Paradise is yet to return to pre-Covid conditions, likely due to impacts from international and interstate travel restrictions, while parking demand in Nerang and Palm Beach is generally similar to pre-Covid conditions,” a council report said.

Cypress Ave Car Park in Surfers Paradise.

At the John Laws Park in Burleigh Heads, parking occupancy is at 80 per cent and reducing the time limit “will improve parking availability by increasing vehicle turnover”.

Officers said on-street parking at Southport was 50-60 per cent, but off-street reached 80-90 per cent.

“Feedback received from stakeholders as part of the study was that visitors to Southport CBD are generally seeking to park for longer than the current one-to-two-hour parking limits allow, deeming them not fit for purpose,” the report said.

Currently on-street parking in Surfers Paradise is only for two hours with the changes creating a four-hour stay at $21.

“During the study, feedback from Surfers Paradise business operators was that the existing one and two-hour paid-parking time limits create a barrier for customers seeking to spend time in local shops, restaurants and at the beach,” the report said.

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