Metering The Hill just creates more problems Author: Mitchell Brain Date: 14/08/2007 Publication: Newcastle Herald
WHERE does Lord Mayor John Tate park? Does he park in the metered parking in front of City Hall? No, the Lord Mayor chooses to park in the closest possible free park to his place of work the driveway of City Hall. This is typical of many of those responsible for the parking debacle on The Hill.
Cr Tate tabled my petition last year saying that it was very big and all signatories deserved to be heard. Then, the next day, he helped vote the meters in and stated that if decisions were made because of petitions we wouldn't need governments. Why did he not express this opinion when he tabled the petition?
How much will commuters have to pay? As much as $1.70 per hour. That's $68 a week or a third of a weekly grocery bill or more than the increase in mortgage repayments caused by the recent interest rate rise.
For some casual employees it won't be worth coming to work and businesses struggling to compete with free-parking shopping centres will have difficulty hiring staff. At least this new "tax" will help Newcastle City Council raise about $21,000 per week. But then if it's not about revenue raising why have councillors not answered my challenge that the funds be donated to charity? Janet Dore tells me the money will go into general revenue.
What is the cause of the problem? Contrary to Cr Tate and Ms Dore's assertions that the cause is the development of Newcastle Grammar School, it is in fact poor urban planning. I have parked near Grammar for the past 19 years and have in no way made the problem worse.
The residents have not added to parking pressures either. (I do, by the way, understand the residents' call for help. But I don't understand how several residents have greater sway with the council than 2500 petition signatories.)
The problem began when meters were installed in the CBD by a short-sighted council, forcing commuters up to The Hill. The council has not addressed the problem of providing commuters, customers and residents with reasonable parking and the city suffers.
The council simply relocated the problem and will continue to do so when it extends meters in to Cooks Hill and Newcastle West and is now asking commuters to pay for their failure. The council's job to plan for commuters' needs is acknowledged in its property development guidelines. Why are these guidelines not properly implemented?
Why does the council provide parking for Hill residents? Grammar doesn't have to include car parking in its current development due to historical reasons, but why doesn't this also apply to The Hill residents? Their homes experience the same historical reasons. Why couldn't we have had dedicated residential parking zones?
Why did I start the petition? The council's original public consultation letter, last year, said that "several residents" had raised the parking issue. Despite numerous requests to be told how many "several" were I have yet to be told.
When I was told by an employee of the council that this was "all about me" I decided to show that there were a lot of "me"s out there.
The council letter (which was not distributed to all stakeholders on The Hill) asked for public comment on the proposal to install the meters, but I was told the meters "were going to happen" regardless of the outcome of the consultation. With attitudes like this I set out to give everyone a voice and prove the council wrong.
What alternatives will commuters have? Documenting the problems caused by meters is a start. (Cr Tate has suggested that I keep councillors informed of problems.) These include increased family stress caused by having to leave for work earlier; parking at King Edward Park, Bar Beach car park although I've been told by a council spokesperson that this will lead to meters there also; having to apologise to your boss for the inconvenience caused to the business by the meters; cutting back the family budget.
Public transport is not a viable alternative, as my survey last year demonstrated. (I have had no feedback on the survey from council.) Organised opposition is also a viable option.
This is an annoying situation. We have been told that meters will alleviate the parking problems. Just because we have to pay for the parking space today that we didn't have to yesterday doesn't mean we are going to move our cars and hence enable residents to find a park.
The council has not solved a problem. It is out of touch and has created several other problems.
Mitchell Brain is a teacher at Newcastle Grammar School. He co-ordinated a major campaign opposing the meters on The Hill.