Croydon carpark: Maroondah Council slammed for $90 after hours access fee

Locals have lashed out at an outer east council for closing its new commuter carpark well before the last train arrives, and charging a “rip off” after hours access fee.

A Melbourne council is charging users a hefty after-hours access fee at its new commuter carpark, and closing it well before the last train services arrive.

Maroondah Council is charging users $90 to grab their car from its $18m commuter carpark on Devon St in Croydon when it is closed due to security measures.

The carpark closes at 8pm Sunday to Thursday and 10pm on Friday and Saturday, and those already parked inside have until 10pm Sunday to Thursday or midnight on Friday and Saturday to drive out.

The access hours finish well before the last Lilydale line services from the CBD arrive at nearby Croydon railway station at 11.30pm and 12.30am on weekdays, and later services on Fridays and Saturdays.

Users needing to grab their cars can do so for the $90 fee, or have to wait until the carpark reopens at 6am to collect and drive out for free.

The carpark, which opened in December, was fully funded by the federal government and designed to have free all-day parking seven-days-a-week.

Leader first revealed the council’s plan to charge commuters for overnight access in November, when a pay station was spotted outside its Devon St entry point.

At the time, the screen asked for a $7 payment, which the council later said was wrong as the machine hadn’t been properly installed.

The after-hours payment machine installed outside the new Croydon multideck carpark on Devon St. Picture: Kiel Egging.

Croydon's $18m multi-level commuter carpark, funded by the Federal Government, opened in December 2021. Picture: Kiel Egging.

Readers on Maroondah Leader’s Facebook page were angered by the cost of the call-out fee and the carpark’s operating times.

Vivenne Smith expressed concerns about commuters’ safety in the station’s precinct at night, and said the carpark’s hours were “about 30 years behind how the modern workforce operates outside of the protected public sector”.

“If someone chooses to park their car at their own risk, give them decent hours in which to do it,” she wrote.

Donna Mackinnon called for the carpark’s opening hours to be extended, saying they “only suit 9-5 workers”.

“At the very least it should be open all hours that trains are running — so from about 5am to 12:45pm,” she wrote.

Donna Salmon felt the arrangement was “so wrong”. “So if you stay in the city after work for a function, when you get back your car is locked in?” she wrote.

The council’s communications team did not respond to questions from Leader including how much money the council had collected in after-hours fees since the carpark opened, and why it closed before the last train services arrived.

It also did not say whether a similar scheme would be in place at the Federal Government’s three other commuter carparks to be built at Ringwood, Heathmont and Heatherdale stations.

The carparks were promised by Deakin federal Liberal MP Michael Sukkar in 2019, with construction yet to get underway.