Occupants of the eight terraces in Kite Street opposite the Department of Primary Industries (DPI) say they are forced to illegally double park, because there are no parking spots near their homes for about 10 hours a day. 

Resident George Arif says he takes his partner, who has a disability, to appointments everyday and must double park in front of his home so she can use her walking frame to traverse the distance.

“She can’t walk very far at all, I then go and park around the block,” he said.

Mother-of-two Shannon Gee said she must do the same when she does the grocery shopping.

“I have to double park and run the groceries in and then I go back and drive the car around the block with the girls and we walk the rest of the way,” she said. 

Ms Gee and resident Robert Bruce said they had sent Orange City Council three emails asking for designated residents parking, with the most recent being in December, but received no reply. 

Orange City Council communications officer Allan Reeder said council recognised the problems and introduced a card-based residential parking scheme for that area and another in Anson Street between Moulder and Kite Streets.

“While other drivers have to move their cars to comply with timed parking limits, by placing the supplied card on the car dashboard, the residents’ scheme lets residents park all day close to their home,” he said. 

However, the residents claim the scheme is useless because once they leave their homes there are no parks to return to. 

Mr Reeder said council planned to introduce number plate recognition to force drivers to move their cars. 

“In Bathurst, there are signs this system has encouraged drivers to comply more with parking limits, and better share the available spaces,” he said. 

But residents said the proposal would not help because DPI staff watched for inspectors out office windows and swapped car spots. 

Mr Reeder said in the meantime council inspectors would pay close attention to the area. He said a lack of parking was the downside of “an otherwise convenient inner-city location that isn’t felt in Orange’s outer suburbs.” 

A DPI spokesperson said it provided members of its staff with on-site parking at its head office in Orange and staff were reminded about adhering to Orange City Council parking laws and time limits.