Townsville councillor seeks ‘pause’ on Strand parking meters

Efforts by a lone councillor to pause the controversial decision to expand paid parking across Townsville including The Strand have been applauded by business leaders. Get the latest.

Townsville City councillor Kurt Rehbein said community reaction to a parking meter rollout across the city, including at The Strand in North Ward, shows the council needs to reconsider its position. Picture: Shae Beplate.

Efforts by a lone councillor to pause the controversial decision to expand paid parking across the city including The Strand have been applauded by the Townsville Chamber of Commerce.

Last week, Townsville City Council unexpectedly announced a plan in its 2024/25 budget to increase parking charges by $1 per hour and broaden paid parking to include popular recreational, medical and hospitality precincts at The Strand, Gregory St, Mitchell St, Palmer St and Fulham Rd.

The decision has attracted fierce opposition throughout the city, with a free parking petition on change.org collecting nearly 10,000 signatures, with an additional 2191 signatures gathered by five e-petitions on the council’s website.

In their e-Petition, Townsville Chamber of Commerce CEO Heidi Turner accused the council of introducing paid parking “without prior community and business consultation”.

Bombarded by “significant feedback” from residents about the parking decision, Division 7 Councillor Kurt Rehbein said in Wednesday’s ordinary meeting of Townsville City Council that he had filed a motion for the issue to be discussed at the next council meeting.

While the issue had been covered during confidential budget discussions, Cr Rehbein called for it to be paused, saying it was hard to support given recent feedback and the lack of appropriate supporting data being presented to the community.

Mrs Turner said it was essential for there to be transparency for council’s decision-making process, particularly when it came to issues that have a significant impact on the community.

CEO of the Chamber of Commerce Heidi Turner. Picture: Shae Beplate.

“The city voted for transparency and a number of councillors ran with that on their ticket,” Mrs Turner said.

She said the economic and social impacts of the parking changes could have an unacceptable impact on businesses such as hospitality, which already faced rising costs and lower customer spending.

Mr Rehbein told the Bulletin he had adapted his position after approving the budget and had brought a motion to the chief executive Joe McCabe, believing the Townsville community’s resentment for the extension of parking meters has shown the policy needs to reconsidered.

He would like councillors to debate it further within the next ordinary council meeting on July 17.

“I don’t want to pre-empt any discussion that goes into that,” Mr Rehbein said.

“I’d really like to get in there with the other councillors and so forth, and the organisation, and have that discussion on the floor.”

Mr Rehbein acknowledged his support of the budget when it was brought before the council last week.

“Look, the question did I vote for the budget, yes I did, because we’ve got to hand down a city budget.

“That’s an important role and one of the jobs of a councillor, and we can’t forget that in the budget there’s hundreds of good things too, street sweeping to library programs to the events we support as well.

“So we’ve handed down a budget, it doesn’t mean I can’t have concerns or share concerns that the community have.”

Division 3 councillor Ann-Maree Greaney said all councillors adopted the budget with a focus on maintaining essential services in the community.

Cr Ann-Maree Greaney. Picture: Evan Morgan

“Initiatives like paid parking are essential to ensure that we can continue delivering core services the community expect,” she said.

“Paid parking in these locations will improve the turnover of parking bays and increase visitor numbers, aiming to balance the needs of businesses, residents, and workers while providing a sustainable approach to offsetting the cost of maintaining key community assets such as The Strand.

“Residents and businesses at these locations will receive further information prior to parking initiatives being introduced.”

When asked if the community petitions circulating made a difference in changing council policy, Mr Rehbein said these petitions showed the “dynamic” of the issue.

“You wouldn’t be doing your job if you didn’t raise your concerns in the chamber, that’s what I’m doing here,” he said.

Originally published as Townsville councillor seeks ‘pause’ on Strand parking meters