Renters could get slice of parking on Sydney’s northern beaches

The Australian beach is portrayed as the great equaliser. Surf washes off social layers and other protections and, in the church of the open sky, we are as one.

But the ideal of the egalitarian beach has always been more mood than truth.

Beach parking at Manly.Credit: Nikki Short

In fact, our beaches have been no-go zones. Daylight bathing was first proscribed in 1833 around Sydney Cove and spread throughout the harbour until 1902, when a local went for a midday swim and Manly Council went to water.

Sydney took to the waves and in the early 1960s the first outbreak of “locals only” occurred as surfies fought western Sydney rockers who trespassed on their territorial imperative.

When surfers rode beach culture into the Australian mainstream, the price of Sydney’s beachside homes quickly proved another form of exclusion. It spread up and down the coast as clusters of fibro shacks, where farmers once holidayed at Christmas, became enclaves of privilege and Airbnb. But some of the dispossessed may be poised to take their place in the sun.

Renters will have access to free parking permits for a string of popular beaches in Sydney’s north under a NSW government plan to scrap council rules restricting the passes to homeowners.

NSW Roads Minister John Graham has told the Herald that removing the restrictions was “a fairness issue, and a cost-of-living issue” given one-third of the state’s population were renters – a proportion that was rising. “We do not believe a distinction should be made based on whether someone owns their own home or rents it when it comes to access to the beach,” he said.

Wakehurst independent MP Michael Regan thought the proposed change an “overreach”, arguing it would strip council revenues, increase demand for car spaces and erode property owners’ rights.

Regan may be right. But some councils are already turning beach parking into profit: Waverley is selling permits to non-residents for $2110 a year.

At present, Mosman and Northern Beaches councils issue free parking at beaches to ratepayers but charge renters for the same permit. For example, on the northern beaches, home owners are issued two free, annual parking permits to 40 local beaches while renters need to apply and pay $250 for a parking sticker. In Mosman, property owners have a free access sticker to four car parks, including Balmoral and the Spit, while resident renters can purchase up to two permits for $61 each.

Graham said the government was also considering changes to parking guidelines that would prevent councils blocking renting residents in strata units and multi-dwelling properties from obtaining residential parking permits on the same terms as other residents. The government recently put an end to Woollahra Council’s 15-minute time limit for visitors to Watsons Bay while residents had full-day parking.

It will be up to the councils to decide whether to give renters the more equitable deal. But the government’s magnanimity is almost politically painless. Neither Mosman nor suburbs from Manly to Palm Beach vote Labor.

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