Toowoomba Regional Council to end free parking in CBD as part of new paid-space strategy

Enormous change is coming to 460 Toowoomba CBD parking spaces which is set to generate additional millions of dollars for council in years to come.

Councillor Melissa Taylor says the council's move to paid parking in the CBD will balance out demand for spaces.

The Toowoomba CBD’s remaining free parking spots will be turned into paid spaces under a plan that could generate another $850,000 for the council every year.

A majority of councilors voted to endorse the project, which would phase out the city centre’s remaining 467 free spaces within two years, at Tuesday’s ordinary meeting.

Once rolled out by the end of the 2022-23 financial year, all public parking within a 10 minute walk of the city centre core will require payment.

However, it’s understood the council will give motorists 30 minutes for free, twice as long as what is offered in Brisbane.

According to a council officer’s report, the move was to try to regulate the flow of high-demand parking spaces more effectively.

“This introduction should in time, create consistent turnover in alignment with current designated parking limits, improve business viability, in addition to creating awareness of parking availability for the community and visitors entering the city centre,” the report said.

The report acknowledged that while more paid parking would result in more turnover of spaces, the move could drive people away from the CBD initially.

“Negative perception risks will include the immediate increased costs to both public and business customers and potential deterrence of customers parking within the CBD that may temporarily impact parking patronage,” it said.

A commercial analysis of the 293 one, two and three-hour spaces, which assumed a cost of $1.90 at 80 per cent average occupancy, predicted the council would earn about $850,000 in extra revenue if it offered 30 minutes free to start.

Parking is a significant revenue raiser for the council, with the practice earning nearly $3m in the most recent non-Covid related financial year (2018-19).

But infrastructure portfolio leader Councillor Melissa Taylor said the move was to smooth out imbalances in demand for parking spaces across the CBD.

“A key element in this strategy will be delivering smart parking technology to provide an improved experience for customers, with greater accessibility to parking,” she said.

“We need to make best use of our existing parking assets.

“Maintaining acceptable levels of accessibility and turnover of carparking close to the city centre is essential for businesses that rely on customer parking.

“It will balance out demand by increasing the price in high demand areas and lowering the price in low demand areas to spread (out) parking.”

Ms Taylor said the conversion was also a sign of Toowoomba’s maturity as a regional area.

“Toowoomba is no longer a country town where you will always get a park in front of the shop you want to visit,” she said.

Councilors Rebecca Vonhoff, Tim McMahon and James O’Shea voted against the motion.

Mr O’Shea said expanding the paid parking should be done hand-in-hand with addressing a shortage of long-term parking.

“This is a step in isolation that is going to cause more issues than not,” he said.

“I am sure when we go to the general public with this it is going to be a shock.”

Ms Vonhoff echoed this skepticism and called on the council to ‘get its house in order.”

“I agree with paid parking and I agree with the overall strategy, my issue is with the timing,” she said.

Key among her concerns was inconsistency with the metres and a Covid health advice urging the public to avoid using cash.

“We need to iron out all the creases in our paid-parking strategy before we expand it,” Ms Vonhoff said.

Councilor Nancy Sommerfield was absent due to illness and did not vote.