Beach parking meters abandoned as Randwick Council votes down plan

A bid to introduce paid parking meters at popular Randwick beaches is dead in the water after councillors voted to scrap the proposal following a vocal campaign from angry residents.

Randwick Mayor Dylan Parker had argued paid parking meters were needed to raise revenue to support beach maintenance, and that locals should be provided with parking permits to visit Clovelly, Coogee, Malabar, Little Bay and La Perouse.

The controversial policy came before an at-times heated council meeting with a public gallery packed with anti-parking meter residents, some of whom shouted while Labor councillors spoke.

“Lets put parking meters back in a box, put a lid on it, and then let’s put it away,” Liberal Councillor Christie Hamilton said.

The proposal voted on at the Tuesday night council meeting, while watered down and covering a smaller area than originally proposed, was scrapped by Liberals, Greens and independent councillors. Cheers erupted from the public gallery which was then expelled from the meeting.

Of 12,000 people consulted by the council about the proposal, 55 per cent supported the plan in a survey and 64 per cent supported through a phone survey, a council spokesman said. Paid parking would have cost visitors $5.70 per hour in the summer, around half of what neighbouring Waverley Council charges.

Local business owner Dave Martin previously told this masthead parking meters were “the last thing the community needs” and feared it would deter visitors from coming to local businesses.

Parker told this masthead the proposal was an attempt to make it easier for locals to find a park and to fund lifeguards, surf lifesaving clubs and coastal walkways.

“As a result that can no longer happen,” he said. “Resulting from this decision, locals will continue to cover 100 per cent of the cost of managing our beaches. In order to provide any additional services or infrastructure we will need to look at local sources, whether that is increased rates, fees or delaying projects, but that work will need to start from scratch.”

Some councillors raised issues around fairness by forcing those without the luxury of living near the beach to pay to visit, and many councillors raised the powerful local backlash against the proposal as evidence that the community did not want parking meters.

A report given to councillors said the revised parking meter proposal would have raised between $3 and $3.5 million a year. Last year the council spent $23.5 million on managing beachside amenities.

Randwick Council has a long history in trying to force motorists to pay for parking. This latest defeat comes more than 20 years after a previous attempt was defeated after a sustained campaign from locals, hundreds of whom gathered on Coogee Beach forming the word “no” in opposition to paid parking.

In Maroubra founding member of notorious surf gang the Bra Boys, Sunny Abberton, got behind the microphone at an angry 2005 protest where locals held signs calling for the council to be sacked.

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