Kingston parking inspectors hiding to nab illegal drop-offs in Mentone

ANGRY motorists are dubbing parking officers “dark knights”, claiming they’re clogging up precious parking spots at Mentone Station for sneaky “sting” operations.

PARKING inspectors snapping photos of drivers doing illegal drop-offs at busy Mentone station are being accused of taking up precious parking spots.

Kingston’s “grey ghost” inspectors have been renamed the “dark knights” by angry locals (because of the colour of their cars), with station users complaining inspectors were operating in a sting-like manner.

Residents have photographed officers in dark hatchbacks, parked in one of the few short-term spaces opposite the station, taking pictures of people dropping off train passengers in bus zones.

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Dorothy Booth, the chairwoman of the Friends of Mentone Train Station and Gardens, said “the sting” had been going on for years and hit people dropping off pregnant, elderly and disabled train passengers.

She said there was a single, five-minute parking spot near the station but many people illegally used the bus zone because the drop-offs took less than a minute.

There were a handful of short-stay parking spots opposite the station, which were ironically used by the parking inspectors, she said.

“The parking inspectors even go in for a coffee (at the local cafe opposite) and take pictures of motorists while enjoying a spot of caffeine,” Ms Booth said.

A local driver, who did not want to be named, sent photographs to the Leader of a person they believed was a parking inspector in a car taking photographs of people dropping commuters in the bus zone just before 9am on a weekday last month.

Angry drivers say Kingston Council parking inspectors are taking up limited carpark spots to snap pics of people using a bus lane for drop offs at busy Mentone Station.

“The next thing that happens, of course, is that all those people will receive fines in the mail — even if the drop off was all of five seconds,” they said.

“How horrible that the council has to revert to this deceitful behaviour, all for profit.”

The dark car was similar to others photographed by residents in parking stings around the station earlier this year but with a different numberplate.

The president of the Kingston Residents’ Association Trevor Shewan said despite it being illegal to use bus zones to drop passengers at the station, the offenders were “easy targets” and should be shown some lenience.

Kingston Council’s general manager of planning and development, Jonathan Guttmann, said photographs of offending motorists were taken as evidence of people using zones only allowed for buses.

He said parking officers who mainly drove Toyota Yaris hatchbacks and wore readily identifiable uniforms, used public car-spots because they had to legally park their vehicle.

In 2013 Kingston Council removed a drop-off zone in front of the station and replaced it with authorised vehicle parking.

Three short-term parks were moved across the road, but people complained they were always full — and often taken up by inspectors fining drivers for not using them.

The public furore forced the council to return the quick drop-off zone in 2015.

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