Caught short: casual parkers miss out as council cuts price of long-term

Orange City Council has cut the price of one month permits from $61 to $50 [18 per cent] while three month permits are now $150 and six month permits $300 – down 24 per cent from July 1.

The savings will be best achieved by people who use the Lords Place and Kite Street park five days a week, every week.

Casual parkers won’t make any savings on the daily fee which many said was too high.

On Monday motorist Debbie Bowman said council should cut the daily fee to $2 instead.

“I don’t park here enough for the $50,” she said.

“I only work four days a week.

“There are many workers who park here.”

Emily Campbell said it did not help her or fellow retail workers who worked several days a week.

“It don’t think it would make a difference at $50 a month,” she said.

“Most of the ladies I work with are five days a week, that’s $15 now, so the $50 a month doesn’t really benefit us [much].”

She agreed with other drivers and said cutting the daily rate would be more beneficial.

Miss Campbell said some workers avoided the car park because of the cost and then had to walk through the adjacent park at night to get to their cars.

Margie Sampson said she had taken up the long term permit offer because she worked five days a week and there was no where else to park all day.

“It’s a revenue thing for the council,” she said.

City of Orange Traffic Committee chair Cr Russell Turner said the permits “were far more convenient” and were cheaper than paying $3 a day.

“For someone who parks Monday to Friday, or about 22 days per month, there’s a saving of $16 a month, or almost $200 a year,” he said.

Cr Turner said the long-term permit could be transferred between cars, work colleagues and family members.

“Drivers won’t have to waste time looking for coins and walking over to the machines to get a ticket,” he said.

“They can come into the Byng Street office once a month, or purchase a three month of six month permit and put it on the dashboard.”

Council spokesman Nick Redmond said the permits were proving popular with seven already sold for Orange’s only paid car park.

“The council has to balance the aim of streamlining the process, with the need to bring in a reasonable level of revenue from user-pays activities such as this,” he said.

“There was no increase in the $3 per day charge in the latest budget.”

Mr Redmond said cashless machines might be introduced.

“The council has begun investigating the option of voucher machines which use a card instead of coins, but any change would be some time off,” he said.