TIME TO PARK TOUGH ISSUE

CITY councillors can’t have it both ways.

The council welcomes massive development as it watches the dollars flow into city coffers and into the economy.

Then on the other hand it bucks when the armies of subcontractors and labourers employed on tower development sites fill parking spaces across the suburbs, and starts imposing limited parking zones across Broadbeach and Surfers Paradise to force workers to park elsewhere, and introduces even more paid parking areas.

The city has to find alternative solutions to tightening the screws on workers. Local councillors might enjoy a brief moment of approval from residents fed up with workers or students parking in their streets.

But much of the blame for parking congestion rests with the council and approvals granted over many decades that failed to take into account the consequences of so much high-density development.

This is the week for the parking debate our city must have. For starters, the State Government is doing too little too late to address the disgraceful gouging of public hospital patients and visitors.

Then there is the sale of the Bruce Bishop car park. The Save Surfers Paradise lobby group will rally today to protest against the sale and the feared loss of hundreds of parking spaces. It will coincide with a bid by local councillor Gary Baildon to have the sale decision deferred.

Meanwhile frustrated commuters will keep complaining to the Bulletin about how public car parks in Southport have suddenly run out of space.

Broadbeach councillor Paul Taylor wants to turn his entire suburb into a twohour zone to foil tradies on development projects in his area. There is every chance such a move will merely shove the problem into someone else’s area – even many kilometres up the road to Southport.

“I’m getting letters all the time,’’ he said yesterday of complaints. He should get out and about more. It is a citywide problem.

Radical new thinking is required at the council to solve it, rather than trying to penalise tens of thousands of workers who need to drive. It is ridiculous to impose zones, fees and fines to force commuters on to trams and buses while our public transport system is light years from being adequate for the needs of a linear city.