Bronte Car Park cuts Waverley in two

Following a series of amendments, Waverley Council will now introduce 10 new parking meters at Bronte Cutting Car Park as part of a new system to be implemented later this year.

Councillor Paula Masselos, who has lived in Bronte for 27 years, said Council should focus on welcoming visitors to the area with a staffed booth rather than “chasing people away” with parking fees.

“I’m appalled at the consultation process. Option C did not have a [manned] booth – it was [only] a boom gate with a parking meter,” she said.

But Mayor Sally Betts said there are multiple problems with the current manned booth – including security and the vandalism of boom gates – and the existing system of parking needed to be more efficient.

“It’s unsafe for us to collect money in a small booth like that. If we were to keep the current system, we would need to upgrade it and it would cost us … hundreds of thousands of dollars,” she said.

“It is not a good system – we have known for years. The solution of putting meters in protects all residents because you’ll be able to put your beach pass into the meter so residents won’t have to pay. The advantage is if your beach pass has expired, you can actually purchase it via the meter.”

But Ms Masselos raised concerns over the community consultation process, arguing the existing staffed booth was not operating at an optimum level, and an upgrade of the existing system needed to be acknowledged in the presented options.

“A lot of people who come to the beach are visitors rather than locals. People want the booth – you can buy your resident parking permits there and it can provide basic Council services. We’ve got an opportunity to give residents a service that will [do] more than pay for itself,” she said.

A Council report on four parking options was presented at the Waverley Community, Housing, Environmental Services and Public Works Committee meeting on June 4, tabling feedback received from community consultation.

The carried motion said Option A is currently preferred by the majority of the survey participants. Option A has benefits including a faster car park entry and exit, and cheaper costs to erect and maintain the system.

The motion included a one year trial of time-unlimited daily parking for all, with fees applying for not beach permit holders as adopted from time to time in Council’s Pricing Policy. A report on the outcomes of the trial of time unlimited parking in Bronte Cutting car park will be submitted to Council in March 2015.

Due to a lack of time limits for beach permit holders, there may be a reduction in turnover of parking spaces.

Councillor John Wakefield called for greater transparency in Council’s “ping pong discussions”, opining a trial for a manned booth in Bronte could lead to its implementation across the Waverley local government area in districts including Bondi and Rose Bay.

“If we could see it work [at Bronte], we could use it as a model for other satellite locations, other disparate areas within our municipality … to give us a fuller picture,” he said.

The installation of 10 parking meters, new signage and the removal of existing infrastructure is expected to be completed by the beginning of December.