Parking concerns to be heard by Council

After months of unaddressed parking complaints, the frustrated voice of Erskineville locals will finally be heard by the City of Sydney Council.
A meeting will take place on August 9, at which community group Friends of Erskineville will help scope the traffic and parking audit to take place in the area.
Friends of Erskineville Vice President, Paul Howard has serious concerns about unrestricted parking zones being used by commuters and visitors to Newtown, causing residents of the area to lose parking near their homes.
“We want to make sure council seriously understands that the impact on resident parking in our area now is caused by external sources. It’s got nothing to do with car usage,” said Mr Howard.
“It’s to do with the decisions being made by council.”
Councillor Chris Harris motioned for the parking audit and will be present at the meeting. He has expressed support for the concerns raised.
“The motion was important in putting an exclamation point next to the problem and making it a priority for council,” he said.
Councillor Irene Doutney shares concern about the suburb.
“It’s a shocker. It really is a driver’s nightmare. The philosophy of council is to try and discourage people from having cars when they are that close to trains and buses and even in walking distance of the city but the residents there have real problems,” she said.
Councillor Meredith Burgmann believes councillors are being ‘close minded’ about this philosophy and council policy needs improvement.
“People will still have cars and this policy of not allowing sufficient off-street parking in developments is just short sighted. I agree that they [residents] are not getting a very sympathetic ear from council over parking issues,” she said.
Councillor Harris also commented on Council’s disregard of resident’s complaints.
“The residents have been complaining for about two years and I really don’t think council have put enough energy into addressing it,” he said.
Also, both Councillor Burgmann and Mr Howard have raised concern about developments recently being approved without onsite parking.
But Councillor Harris supports the approvals and believes the accommodation will, in fact, attract residents without cars to the area.
Friends of Erskineville hope to see the introduction of a visitor parking scheme including; resident only parking in certain areas with one hour only visitor parking.
Councillor Harris believes that the meeting and audit will identify the parking needs in the area, and allow for more restrictive schemes to be put in place.

By Tara Blancato