By Charlene Gatt
FREE parking in Footscray is now at a premium after Maribyrnong City Council voted to roll out 69 new paid parking machines last week.
The council voted to introduce its third stage of paid parking across Donald St, Ryan St, Byron St, Hopkins St, Nicholson St North, McNabb Ave and Droop St, covering 720 parking spaces across Footscray’s CBD.
The move means three out of every four car parking spaces in central Footscray will fall under paid parking.
Barkly St, Paisley St, Nicholson St, Albert St, Pickett St and Raleigh St scored a reprieve from the current roll-out after community opposition, but the decision will be reviewed in the future.
The council will dip into its Capital Works reserve to fund the roll-out.
The vote follows earlier advice from the Australia Road Research Board Group, which said that paid parking helps to increase turnover of car parking spaces.
“Pay parking is essential to keep Footscray moving,” Mayor Sarah Carter said.
“Although not everyone will be happy with the rollout of more machines, there are great benefits for the whole of Footscray.”
Councillor Sel Sanli said paid parking was a contentious but important tool for the economic development of Footscray’s CBD.
Cr Sanli also said paid parking was a good way to generate money that could be used on capital improvements, but not all of the money raised would go back into Footscray CBD, CEO Vince Haining admitted.
“We know where we want to move ahead with Footscray and we have been working with the State Government to make sure it occurs,” Cr Sanli said.
“Footscray will not look the same in five years’ time; it will change dramatically.”
Councillor John Cumming, whose ward includes the Footscray CBD, was the only councillor who opposed the increase in paid parking.
Cr Cumming questioned why McNab Ave would now fall under paid parking when it was not advertised on maps put out for consultation earlier this year.
He was also concerned that paid parking would drive shoppers away from Footscray, adding that unpaid, timed parking was a good way to encourage turnover.
“People can park at Highpoint for free – why go to Footscray?
“It’s about the commercial advantage.
“There’s a lot of good here (in the council report), but the bad outweighs it in terms of commercial advantage.”
