Time is up for free inner-city parking Author: JASON GORDON CIVIC REPORTER Date: 28/08/2007 Publication: Newcastle Herald
THE final cluster of free all-day parking areas close to Newcastle's central business district will officially disappear at 9am tomorrow.
That is when Newcastle City Council will flick on the switches of 36 new pay-and-display parking meters on The Hill, meaning that 431 of the city's most popular parking spaces come with a price.
The machines have been installed over the past fortnight in an area bordered by Newcomen, Watt, Ordnance and Tyrrell streets, where parking will cost anything between 40 cents and $1.70 an hour.
Despite vehement opposition to the meters from city workers, the council has proceeded with the installation, insisting that the meters were needed to ensure a turnover of kerbside parking space in the area.
Despite that mantra, most of the new metered areas offer all-day parking, suggesting that rather than turn spaces over, they will do little but create a lucrative windfall for the council.
Of the 431 parking spaces metered, 241 offer all-day parking, 82 offer four-hour parking, 93 offer two hours and 15 offer one hour.
A council spokeswoman said that 159 parking spaces in The Hill precinct would remain unrestricted and free.
Many city motorists appeared to have received the message early this week.
Unsure if the meters had been switched on, they flooded unmetered areas further away from the city yesterday and left Barker, Tyrrell and Ordnance streets largely devoid of parked cars.
Frequent users of public transport reported yesterday anecdotal evidence that more city workers were choosing to leave their cars on the city's fringes to take advantage of the free city bus loop or train services between Hamilton and Newcastle.
The new meters were the subject of a massive community campaign earlier this year, which attracted more than 2500 signatures on an anti-meter petition organised by Newcastle Grammar School teacher Mitchell Brain.
A second petition organised by Newcastle MP Jodi McKay in the lead-up to the March election attracted 2000 signatures.