Why you'll be more at risk of getting fined in Cowes and Wonthaggi

BE WARNED, Smart Parking sensors are being rolled out in Wonthaggi and Cowes from Monday, August 8.

And if you want to avoid a $92 fine for overstaying the time limit, by even a minute or two, you’ll almost certainly have to change your attitude to parking in the two towns.

According to an email sent to business owners by the Bass Coast Shire Council last Friday, July 22, the project will involve the installation of 730 parking bay sensors, a Coke-can sized electronic devise, which will be buried under 498 parking spots in Cowes, (Thompson Avenue, Chapel Street, The Esplanade and Cowes Transit Centre) and 262 in Wonthaggi (Graham Street and McBride Avenue).

And that’s just for starters.

These sensors will record when a car stops over the top of a parking bay and will “ping” a message to the shire’s enforcement officers, known as ‘Community Safety Officers’, who can be there in a matter of minutes to slap down a $92 fine.

There’s no need for chalk marks on the tyres or surveillance anymore, however the officers must turn up in person, photograph the offending vehicle and issue the notice on-the-spot.

Ken Hailey, a committee member of Island Voice, says it’s an expensive overkill.

“For nine or 10 months of the year, we haven’t got a problem here. It’s still just that six weeks over the summer that it’s busy,” Mr Hailey said.

“Most of the time, you haven’t got a problem finding a park.

“What this is actually going to do is catch the older resident who has come up the street to put in their prescription and maybe meet a friend for a coffee. They’ll get back to their car two or three minutes late, and boom, they’ve got a $92 fine.

“They say it’s for traffic management, but it’s revenue raising pure and simple.

“Someone from Melbourne has come to the shire to work and said, ‘I know a great parking system you can introduce here’ and they’ve gone for it.

“In the City of Hobsons Bay or Frankston, they’d make a system like this pay in a couple of years, but how long will it be until we cover the infrastructure costs here?” Mr Hailey asked.

Former member of the Wonthaggi Business and Tourism Association, Terry Earl, said he wondered how the Smart Parking Meters could be introduced in Wonthaggi when the shire was yet to complete its Wonthaggi Streetscapes Masterplan, for which council approved the application for a $1.5 million Growing Suburbs Fund grant at last week’s council meeting.

“How much parking will be lost for the pedestrian crossings? Where will they be replaced? Where is the all-day parking in the town?

“You don’t want to be seen as moaning and groaning but the consultation hasn’t been all that flash,” Mr Earl said.

What does it cost?

The shire has consistently claimed that the Smart Parking Project will cost $300,000, paid for out of the Capital Works budget of 2021-22.

However, in the ‘contracts awarded’ spreadsheet on the council website, the contract amount for the Smart Parking Project (Australian Parking & Revenue Control Pty Ltd) is listed at $377,819.

In the ‘Contracts Awarded and Extended’ section of the council minutes of February 16, 2022, the Smart Parking Project contract (Australian Parking & Revenue Control Pty Ltd) is quoted at $343,471.82. Hopefully the $34,347 discrepancy is in the ratepayers’ favour.

At the higher amount, the council’s ‘Community Safety Officers’ are going to have to issue 4107 more parking tickets just to break even with the present situation, or 170 more-per-month if the shire is to get its money back in two years.

Perhaps it will, but the higher revenue amount will be on-going unless drivers respond by really keeping track of their parking limits or finding one of those rare all-day parking places.

Mr Hailey said he understood the supermarket operators in Cowes; Coles, Woolworths and Aldi were far from happy with the arrangements, believing people will be driven into their private parking areas to park.

“It will only get worse for them when the new hospital, Cowes community centre and new hotel in the main street open.

“We’ve asked them to wait on installing the sensors until they’ve at least planned the upgrade of the Thompson Avenue and CBD streetscape, but to no avail.”

The upside from the new system is that motorists will be able to download an app which will tell them where vacant parking bays exist in town, even from “suburbs away”.

Signs will also be erected pointing to the location of vacant spaces.

The downside is that the APRC technology allows council to further automate the system and potentially issue more fines.

Will it succeed in pushing business owners and their employees out of the limited in-town parking spaces, and move on those who would otherwise outstay their time limit, or will it have a detrimental impact on business? Time will tell.

Smart Parking sensors go in at Cowes and Wonthaggi

The work on digging holes in the carparking bays in Cowes and Wonthaggi have been scheduled as follows:

* Cowes: Monday, August 8 to Friday, August 19, 2022. Night Works from 8pm to 6am. Works include installation of 498 sensors in on-street bays in Cowes, on Thompson Avenue, Chapel Street, The Esplanade and at the Cowes Transit Centre Carpark.

* Wonthaggi: Monday, August 22 to Friday, August 26, 2022 Night Works from 8pm to 6am. Works include installation of 262 sensors in on-street bays in Wonthaggi, on Graham Street and McBride Avenue.

* Cowes: Monday, September 5 to Friday, September 9, 2022. Day Works from 7am to 5pm. Works include poles & VMS signage installation in Thompson Avenue, on Church Street and in Chapel Street.