Councils cash in on parking fines August 28, 2007 12:00am Herald Sun
MELBOURNE councils earn up to five times more money from parking fines than parking meters.
Critics say the figures show councils are deliberately raising revenue through parking fines, and have called on drivers to fight the penalties.
The local government peak body has defended the fines, but agrees councils need the income to balance budgets.
Last year's council budgets show that of all councils charging a fee to park, Boroondara had one of the biggest income discrepancies, with $5.32 million from fines compared with $844,000 from fees on 1063 user-pays parking spots.
While many councils, including Whitehorse and Port Phillip, kept fines and meter incomes on a fairly even keel, Melbourne City Council netted $11.2 million more from fines than meters.
And Stonnington, with 2060 parks, got three times more income from fines than from fees.
The figures come as several councils step up programs to catch out more motorists.
Inspectors at Melbourne City Council say they've been told to meet new daily quotas, after income from parking was down by $2 million on the previous year in last year's budget.
In the Kingston Council area, inspectors are armed with cameras to capture infringements.
And in Whitehorse, a trial monitoring system alerting inspectors when a car has exceeded the time limit, has seen the parking fines triple.
Yarra and Moonee Valley are also trying out the Parking Overstay Detection System.
Anti-fines campaigner Mike Palmer said the tactics were a blatant attempt to lift revenue.
Mr Palmer, who founded www.aussiespeedingfines.com to help drivers fight speeding and parking fines, believes councils illegally enforce parking restrictions.
"Parking restrictions aren't law, they are guidelines," he said.
"Councils shouldn't be enforcing them."
Mr Palmer said hundreds of Victorians have decided to fight against parking fines.
"People have had enough of these ridiculous fines, getting charged $50, $60, $70 for being two minutes over on a meter," he said.
"The punishment does not fit the crime . . . there is no crime."
Municipal Association of Victoria president Dick Gross said drivers were welcome to question their parking fines in court.
"But as far as I'm aware the fines are legal," Cr Gross said.
"The parking regulation does actually protect the community, and increases safety."
While Cr Gross denied that councils set out to trap motorists, he admitted councils did rely on the revenue.
"Parking fines are clearly an important revenue item and councils do have to raise money," he said.
"But we impose them for social and safety reasons, not revenue raising.
"Every year, visitors in cars probably enjoy tens of millions of dollars in services . . . and collectively, that's how much they pay in parking fines."