STING ON PARKING

PENNY DROPS FOR DRIVERS:

DRIVERS caught short by rising parking fees have urged Cairns Regional Council to rethink how much meter money it slugs ratepayers with.

Grafton St worker Catherine Landicho was among those surprised as hourly parking fees shot up to $1.60 this year.

The increase is all part of a four year plan to raise fees by 20¢ increments every year over four years.

It means the hourly parking rate will hit $2 in 2021.

Ms Landicho said she would back any move to reverse paid weekend parking introduced at the start of last year.

“As a community we have to help the council so we can see improvements in our town,” she said.

“That’s fair enough doing it that way – but not every day.

“Maybe if we can at least have one day off where we don’t have to pay for parking, it would be appreciated.”

The council could have some big changes on the way for the city-centre following a revolt from traders.

Cairns Chamber of Commerce president Nick Loukas planned to broach the issue during a lunch with Mayor Bob Manning yesterday.

“The council has agreed to sit down with us and others to revisit parking in general – especially weekend parking,” he said.

“They’re hearing all the noise of people saying it’s still not right and it’s way too complicated. We have been absolutely hounding them, as have others.”

Mr Loukas, who operates a CBD chemist, was optimistic a solution could be found.

“The attitude is really going to be a clean slate,” he said.

“That’s still one of the number one complaints we get.”

Division 5 Cr Richie Bates expected hard data to be made available to councillors.

“We all agreed that we need to get back to the table and revisit Sunday parking,” he said.

“What I was asking for was details about visitation before and after we implemented weekend parking.

“Let’s see what extra revenue we make out of having those extra days of paid parking and how do we spend it?” editorial@cairnspost.com.au facebook.com/TheCairnsPost www.cairnspost.com.au twitter.com/TheCairnsPost