Lifesavers stung by parking fee plan Author: Bonnie Malkin Urban Affairs Reporter Date: 10/01/2006 Publication: Sydney Morning Herald
FIRST it was swimming pools. Then it was the Australian flag. Now Waverley Council is accused of messing with surf lifesavers.
Volunteer lifesavers in Bondi are furious over council plans to force some of their members to pay as much as $20 a day to park on the beachfront.
All lifesavers can now show their badges at the entrance to the car park and park free of charge.
But Waverley wants to change the scheme and has offered Bondi's two clubs, Bondi Surf Bathers' Life Saving Club and North Bondi Surf Life Saving Club, 20 free and 30 subsidised passes to the car park each.
The council has also offered to let all lifeguards on patrol park free of charge if their names are logged and given to the car park attendant.
Any other members who want to use the car park have to pay the normal tariff, which rises to $20 a day.
The president of North Bondi Surf Life Saving Club, Grant McMah, said the clubs needed more free and subsidised passes.
About 80 lifesavers patrolled North Bondi beach each day, and delivering a list of their names to the car park each morning would place an unnecessary "administrative burden" on the club, he said.
"Someone who was on patrol would have to worry about leaving the beach and getting the log to someone in the car park."
Mr McMah said he had not heard of any other club in Sydney that had to pay for parking.
Waverley Council has delayed its move to change the parking rules, which were supposed to come into force yesterday, and has asked the clubs to submit its own proposal on how to solve the problem by the end of the month.
The Mayor of Waverley, Mora Main, said there was a lot of pressure on the beach car park, and the council needed to balance everyone's needs.
"We have only got 483 spaces at Bondi, and we want to give access to residents, visitors and surf club members, so it's a balancing act."
Waverley Council reaped $6.33 million from parking fines last year.
Charging lifesavers to park at the beach is the fourth controversial decision by Waverley Council in recent months. Last week it was criticised over its refusal to fly the Australian flag over Bondi Pavilion.
Last month it attracted condemnation over charging residents for access to a public park on New Year's Eve, and in November it was criticised over a move to ban residential swimming pools.