Free beach parking bid
Mayor set to introduce changes to city parking
MAYOR Tom Tate says he will introduce sweeping changes to beachside car parks, removing paid-parking and introducing time limits.
On Tuesday, the Bulletin revealed the Gold Coast City Council was reviewing its parking controls across the city.
Yesterday Cr Tate said that when the report was released he would take his proposed changes to the vote council meeting.
He said his parking initiative would apply to “all beaches on the Gold Coast”.
“One thing is for certain, Gold Coasters would like to go to the beach without paying for parking,” he said.
“My attitude is, right on the beach there we should have free parking but leave enough time for turnover, that is every at full three hours.”
Cr Tate said the council’s parking plan and report would be ratified as early as August, in time for summer.
Burleigh business consultant Greg James, who led a charge to stop the introduction of paid parking in a small area on Goodwin Tce at Burleigh Heads in January last year, said it was about time.
“The Gold Coast has been brought up on the beaches. Why should we charge and make it expensive for people to come to the beach?”
Mr James said he agreed with introducing a three-hour parking limit.
Another change from the review could be more threehour limits in beachside communities and resident permits, according to Broadbeach councillor Paul Taylor.
Nobby Neighbourhood Watch and Community Group convener Geoff Krebs told the Bulletin his members supported permits.
Mr Krebs said residents regularly complained about cars blocking their driveways.
“We would like the Nobby Beach area to be three- or fourhour parking, with permits for residents,” he said.
Mermaid Beach Community Association president Alf Vockler said he would like to see one guest parking permit allocated per property for residents to use.
He said parking at Mermaid Beach wasn’t “too bad” in some areas, but when threehour limits are introduced further north where construction was under way, it would get worse.
“The guys working on highrises will all come further down when the three-hour limit is introduced,” he said.