Charges leave an empty feeling
LONG stretches of empty car parks have become a familiar sight on Sundays in the Cairns CBD and yesterday highlighted the effects of charges.
DFS Galleria security guard Paul Fitzpatrick once battled to find a parking space when he pulled a weekend shift.
The situation has done a Uturn since Sunday parking fees were introduced at the start of the year, with barely a car in sight this morning.
Mr Fitzpatrick was so bemused by the CBD wasteland he took a photograph in Abbott St at 11.30am yesterday.
“It was the same on the other side of the street as well, as far up as Woolworths,” he said.
“It’s always the same on Sundays lately.
“Shop owners are saying they are losing so much money from people not coming in.”
Mr Fitzpatrick believed Sunday parking fees should be removed entirely.
Cairns Regional Council last week ordered a review into the Sunday parking with Mayor Bob Manning acknowledging it was “not hitting the right spot with our ratepayers”.
A traffic study will be carried out and brought back to the council early next year to find out whether or not visitation levels have plummeted.
Division 5 Cr Richie Bates PLENTY OF SPOTS: Empty parking spaces along Abbott St yesterday. told the Cairns Post he suspected something would have to change.
“If we’ve got less visitation than beforehand, we have to seriously look at rescinding it,” he said.
“Traders are doing it tough but it’s all about collating the data.”
Cr Bates said any upswing in fees and fines collected from weekend parking should be kept aside for improving parking and access to the city.
“If this is just a revenue raiser that goes into consolidated funds, I don’t think that’s a fair and reasonable outcome,” he said.
“It should be going towards creating a port-to-port shuttle bus system or something else.
“There’s a very real likelihood this global tourism hub (casino development) in the CBD is going to get up.
“If it does, we’re going to need to connect our city much better than just with private vehicles.”