Broken meters cost millions Author: Clay Lucas, city reporter Date: 10/08/2007 Publication: The Age
BROKEN parking meters are costing Melbourne City Council millions of dollars each year.
Each week almost 4000 drivers report faulty meters to the council, which on Wednesday made 98 staff redundant in an attempt to balance its books.
"We are never going to have no broken meters, but the fact is the number broken keeps going up," council finance chairman Cr Brian Shanahan said yesterday.
More than a third of meters reported faulty were found to be operational when inspected by technicians, but that still left 81,000 malfunctioning meters found over the past financial year. Last month, 1500 parking fines were withdrawn because of faulty meters.
In statements for the past financial year, the council notes it earned $9.1 million less than expected from parking fees and fines.
The admission this week from council chief executive David Pitchford that the parking and traffic branch was underperforming was seen by many former and current staff as a sign he is considering sacking the heavily unionised parking officers. Their jobs would then be tendered to the private sector.
Mr Pitchford has previously said he has no plans to privatise parking enforcement, but since July 2006 council officers have met three times with Tenix Solutions, which provides parking enforcement officers and back-of-house administration services for a number of Victorian councils.