Passing buck on parking

IT’S been intriguing to see some City of Greater Geelong councillors distance themselves from the parking fee hikes that took effect Monday.

As this newspaper revealed, the largest increases were for bays near the waterfront, and were not included in the Budget the councillors endorsed a few days earlier.

The elected reps later confirmed they did not know about them.

It was only when the Addy started asking questions that they became aware, and they rightfully felt duped.

But ratepayers and CoGG voters should not be fooled into thinking these councillors were against increasing parking fees across the city.

In fact, nine of the 11 councillors (Mayor Bruce Harwood and Kylie Grzybek were absent) voted unanimously for the overwhelming majority of hikes that were introduced.

On the information at hand, the fee hikes excluded from the Budget — apparently inadvertently by city officers — apply to 291 of 4800 parking spaces CoGG governs.

The various price increases introduced Monday for the remaining 4500 parking bays were backed by the councillors.

If you park at Haymarket and were angry that the $10.80 allday park you used on Friday cost $13 on Monday, rest assured all nine councillors voted in favour of that change.

Likewise, if your monthly parking permit skyrocketed from $124 to $188. We could go on. There was a raft of parking price rises in the Budget papers, and the councillors backed them all.

Any councillor who suggests they were unaware of these price hikes is either being disingenuous, or didn’t read their Budget papers.

The councillors were right to be angered that the parking report included in the Budget excluded the largest fee hikes.

But there were price rises of 20 and 50 per cent introduced on Monday.

They were big whacks that hit thousands of motorists, and they had the imprimatur of the councillors. All of them.