At last Monday night’s Council meeting we approved a pay for use parking trial for a section of Bartley Crescent Wayville and Railway Terrace South Goodwood.

The concept of pay for use parking is a hybrid between two competing challenges that council has grappled with for some time.

The first of these is the concern we have that our residents in the northern reaches of our City, those near public transport routes, of the habit of people outside our council using our streets as a park n ride to access the City of Adelaide. Access to residents properties and the ability of their friends and acquaintances to park when visiting has been a challenge we have yet to solve.

Commuter parking in residential streets is inconvenient for residents and for the delivery of council services such as street sweeping and waste collection. There are areas of the Council where commuter parking has occurred historically with minimal impacts. The main problems occur when parking spills out of these areas and onto narrower residential streets.

This trial, it is felt, may well address these concerns.

Another challenge is the ever increasing pressure to keep rate rises in check and reduce the burden on our rate payers. A recent survey has identified that 70% of cars parking in these streets are outsiders to the City of Unley. Pay for use parking is certainly one answer to reducing the rate burden.

Pay for use parking, based on the figures we have, will be a charge primarily on people who are not our rate payers. These people, if not put off by the charge which is minimal (a maximum of $ 4.00 per day during the trial), could potentially make a significant contribution to our income and impact on the rates.

By my calculations if 80% of commuters continue parking in these locations income derived could equate to up to 1% of rate income.

Of course if they move on then these streets will have less parking in them and our residents will feel some release of pressure on their parkign needs.