Coveted beach parking permits sold on Gumtree, eBay and Facebook
SEASIDE ratepayers are making money off parking at Melbourne’s bayside beaches through an underhanded move that residents are labelling “madness” — and there’s nothing the council can do about it.
Inner South
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COVETED beach parking permits are being sold online for as much as $200 and Bayside Council is powerless to stop it.
The permits, which allow ratepayers free parking at any of the beachside areas, are being sold on Gumtree, eBay and Facebook.
Brighton’s Allison Joseph labelled the situation as “madness”.
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“It just goes to show how much control the council actually has over parking,” she said.
“I saw the ad and asked if it was legal and the council told me it was and I remember thinking it was silly and odd.”
Bayside Council’s planning and community service director Hamish Reid said he was aware of the issue but the council’s hands were tied.
“(The) council is aware that a small number of residents go against the spirit of Bayside’s beach parking permit scheme and sell their permits to nonresidents via social media,” he said.
“While the beach parking permits are fully transferable they are not intended to be onsold.”
Earlier this month it was revealed a huge number of ratepayers did not receive their free permits with their rate notices.
Dr Reid said the council had not been able to “successfully identify a root cause for this issue”.
He did not indicate whether he believed the issue was connected to the permits being sold online.
“(The) council has investigated a small number of reports by the community that, while they received their rates notices, their beach parking permits were not included,” he said.
“In response, (the) council has been supplying replacement permits to residents who state, in good faith, that they did not receive them.”
Ms Joseph said she didn’t receive her permit and it was a “whole production” to get one so, as she hardly parks by the beach, she opted to just pay for parking.
“I also considered buying a permit off Gumtree because that seemed like it would be easier,” she said.
In the meantime, the council is exploring “digital solutions” to replace the existing format and make future passes more easily linkable to Bayside properties.
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