AN Orange City Councillor has thrown his support behind the NSW government’s push to lower some parking fines by almost 30 per cent.
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From March next year council will have the option to reduce the penalty for category two parking offences from $112 to $80.
Councillor Tony Mileto unequivocally backed the reduction, saying it was “a great opportunity for council to reduce the penalty” in line with the state government’s recommendations.
I don’t believe that people deliberately overstay the parking time limits, they are not flaunting the rules.
- Orange City councillor Tony Mileto
He said the current triple-figure penalty was excessive for what was almost always a matter of “simple human error”.
“I don’t believe that people deliberately overstay the parking time limits, they are not flaunting the rules,” Cr Mileto, a member of council’s traffic committee, said.
“People who are penalised just lose track of time or their appointments run a few minutes late.”
“Because of that I don’t believe they should suffer the maximum penalty.”
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Cr Mileto said he did not believe Orange motorists were “manipulating the system” by deliberately parking their vehicles in a time-restricted space in the hopes or remaining undetected and un-fined.
Should council wish to take up the state government’s offer they will need to opt in by January, with the changes to take effect a couple of months later.
Orange residents received the highest number of penalty notices for parking offences in the Central West region in the 2017-18 financial year.
Parking inspectors issued 6128 penalty notices totalling $793,050 for offences in Orange over the course of 12 months.
That followed 4711 notices worth $578,038 in 2016-17, 4361 ($506,477) in 2015-16, and 5401 ($651,402) in 2014-15.
By way of comparison, Bathurst Regional Council issued 2159 penalty notices worth $288,106 in 2017-18, while Dubbo Regional Council sent out 1185 penalty notices valued at $150,256 in the same 12-month stretch.
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