Secure Parking took over the monitoring of the car park from Bathurst Regional Council on March 1 and, according to several retailers, shoppers are staying away in droves.

They are also alarmed by a condition of entry imposed by Secure Parking that says the company reserves the right to enter and move a car, and won’t accept responsibility for any damage done to the car in the process.

Macquarie Skin and Day Spa owner Karla McDiarmid said in the 10 years her business has faced the shopping centre, she’s never seen the car park so empty.

“People aren’t coming to the centre,” she said.

Secure Parking employs licence-plate recognition technology which means, in some situations, that if you park at the shopping centre but exit and re-enter at another time on the same day, you could get a parking ticket.

“When clients come in for a treatment we have to ask them where they’ve parked because we don’t want them getting fined while they’re here,” Ms McDiarmid said.

“My client actually said to me ‘I’m boycotting [the centre] so I don’t get a ticket’,” she said.

Ms McDiarmid said she feels for the retailers who rely on passing trade.

“I’ve been here for 10 years and never seen it so quiet and the only thing that’s changed is the car parking.”

Ms McDiarmid said people using the car park also need to read the fine print of the entry conditions.

“One of the conditions says they have the right to break into your car!

“It’s written in really small print at the bottom of the sign; even the police don’t have the right to do that,” she said.

Stacey Whittaker from Bathurst Real Estate said while their business wasn’t directly affected some of her staff who work in the rental department had received warning letters advising they had overstayed the three-hour limit even though they’d only been parked there for 90 minutes.

Mrs Whittaker said the centre management needed to look at other options. “It’s madness, they need some other system,” she said.

Trevor Kingham of Silva’s Newsagency described the situation as “a disgrace”.

“I understand they want to get rid of the staff from the main street, banks and shops who park there all day but, unfortunately, what they have done is drive people away,” he said.

“People are boycotting the shopping centre and it’s affecting everyone.”

Mr Kingham said he shared Ms McDiarmid’s concern about the car park entry conditions.

“They are basically saying they can break into your car,” he said.