In a shock backflip, Council appears to have bowed to fierce community backlash and has voted to scrap its early morning parking fees along our coastal strip.
The trial, which extended paid parking from 7am to 7pm, was slammed by early risers, especially those who hit the beach or the gym in Burleigh and at the popular Aquatic Centre.
The revised policy means paid parking will now begin at 9am instead of 7am – but not immediately.
Deputy Mayor Mark Hammel has warned residents to continue following current signage until new ones are installed.
“These changes don’t happen overnight,” he said, noting that the city will once again face the time-consuming process of updating parking signs across multiple busy precincts.
The backflip also comes with a hefty price tag, with city officials estimating it will cost the city around $2 million a year.
Despite the budget blow, residents have largely welcomed the backflip, celebrating the move as a win for “community voices and common sense”.
“This means that we’ve effectively abolished that early morning ‘lifestyle tax’ that made it more expensive to support your local cafe, to go for a surf or go for a walk early in the morning,” Burleigh MP Hermann Vorster said.
“I really want to single out those Councillors who saw commonsense, backed in people power and set a precedent for better consultation before council makes these sorts of decisions again”.
