Shoppers off their trolleys over hefty parking fines Author: Bonnie Malkin Urban Affairs Reporter Date: 29/11/2005 Publication: Sydney Morning Herald
MOTORISTS be warned: park straight or you could be slapped with a $75 fine.
Waverley Council officers are patrolling the car park at Westfield Bondi Junction and booking drivers who have strayed outside the white lines that mark each car space.
On Thursday, Emelia Caruana, who visits the shopping centre every day, saw a Waverley Council officer fining owners of cars parked with their bumpers overhanging the white lines.
"One man had his bumper on the white line, his tyre wasn't even on the line, and he got a $75 fine," Ms Caruana said.
"It's disgusting, you think you're getting two hours' free parking and you're going to the shops so you're in a rush, and you come back and you've got a fine."
The manager of technical services for Waverley Council, Dan Joannides, said it was illegal to park outside the white lines anywhere in the municipality.
"[The lines] are there for a reason, if people park over the lines the other bay can't be used and if the bay adjoins a pedestrian crossing you could impede pedestrians," he said.
Mr Joannides said signs had been put up at the entrance to the car park telling drivers that council officers patrolled it.
"Westfield had been having problems with illegally parked vehicles, abuse of disabled parking spaces and people parking on pedestrian crossings," he said.
"It's a big car park and it was quite dangerous so they asked us to come in and police it."
Westfield spokeswoman Julia Clarke said the centre did not have the authority to issue tickets to illegally parked cars.
"We don't have any power to book shoppers . . . council can come in and do that, we allow them to come in," she said.
Ms Clarke said council officers patrolled the car park because Bondi Junction was at a transport hub and demand for spaces was high.
The president of the Local Government Association and Mayor of North Sydney, Genia McCaffery, said she was surprised Waverley Council was allowed to send its officers onto private land.
North Sydney Council officers did not patrol shopping centre car parks, she said.