CBD carparking price hike proves profitable

CAIRNS Regional Council has pocketed an additional $285,000 since changes to CBD parking were rolled out in January.

Council chief executive John Andrejic confirmed the number of parking fines had increased to 30,000 in the nine months from January to September this year — up from 21,500 for the same period in 2017.

Since January, motorists have paid $1.40 per hour at metered parks — an extra 20 cents per hour. Fines have also increased by 15 per cent.

By comparison, Brisbane City Council charges between $1.10 and $4.90 per hour for Monday-to-Friday metered parking.

Mr Andrejic said the changes were designed to “improve turnover of vehicles to make it easier to find a park”.

“Our parking arrangements have to balance the needs of visitors, shoppers, diners, businesses and workers, and we subsequently have a mix of time limits from one hour to eight hours,” he said.

Despite the efforts by the council to “make it easier to find a park”, an increase of 370,000 hours of paid parking have been logged.

“Parking fines act as a deterrent, aimed at generating a consistent turnover of parking bays. Drivers can easily avoid a fine by abiding by time limits and ensuring they pay for sufficient parking,” Mr Andrejic said.

The most common tickets were for failing to pay and displaying an expired ticket.

In December, the council opened a refurbished, 302space multi-storey parking facility on Lake St at a cost of $5.9 million. Mr Andrejic said the council was using additional revenue to trial parking sensors and “investigate” the rollout of parking apps.