Parking review the right step

PAID Sunday parking has arguably been the most controversial decision Cairns Regional Council has made this year.

It has highly irritated motorists and business owners and at times the CBD has been a ghost town on Sundays.

People have avoided the inner city and headed to suburban shopping centres where, in the main, parking is free.

Motorists simply don’t want to pay on Saturday afternoon and on Sundays nor incur a hefty fine. It has impacted heavily on businesses.

In the city the paid parking spots are easily available and often empty over the weekend. The free centre parks for up to three hours have been far more popular and are simple to find.

But at least the council has listened and is reviewing weekend paid parking by doing a survey and listening to feedback from business owners.

Mayor Bob Manning admits that ratepayers and the public are far from happy.

“We’re certainly not hitting the right spot with our ratepayers on this at the moment,” he said.

A year after the new parking regime came into force, a review will be done and a report presented to councillors.

To revert to free weekend parking will be costly. New signs will have to be installed and the council will forgo a lot of revenue in parking fees and fines, about $285,000 in the first nine months.

It takes a lot of courage to admit getting it wrong but sometimes that is the measure of a decision-maker. Nick Dalton Deputy editor