Bathurst Regional Coun-cil’s traffic committee made its recommendation at a meeting on Tuesday.

Bathurst RSL had asked council to convert a total of 145 all-day parking spaces to timed parking but the traffic committee knocked that number back to 116.

The committee’s recommendation will now go to a full meeting of council for final ratification.

Committee chairman Councillor Warren Aubin, who missed Tuesday’s meeting, said the decision recognised the impact on the club following the introduction of mobile parking enforcement in March.

The roll-out of licence plate recognition technology sent CBD workers scurrying to find all-day parking spaces and the car park behind the RSL is now regularly full by 10am.

That means RSL members arriving after that time cannot find a park nearby and, Cr Aubin said, many were simply taking their patronage elsewhere.

It’s expected the introduction of more timed parking in the car park will increase the turnover of traffic.

“I sat there between 10am and 10.30am one day last week and you could see it: people would drive in, drive around for a while and then leave,” Cr Aubin said.

“The RSL needs our help.”

Cr Aubin denied the move would adversely impact on CBD workers.

“They can still leave their car there for four hours,” he said.

“That means if they start at 9 they can park there until 1, move the car during their lunch break and then have another four hours before they go home.”

Cr Aubin said council was still considering building a multi-level car park in the CBD but warned it would not provide free all-day parking, either.

“Carrington Park will probably be the spot but, if you look around at other cities, people can’t expect to keep parking for nothing,” he said.

“Council can’t build a car park at a cost of millions of dollars and just say to people, here you go.”

Cr Aubin said the mobile parking enforcement had done a good job of increasing traffic flow around the CBD but admitted more had to be done to improve parking arrangements for all residents.

He said the traffic committee would join forces with representatives from Roads and Maritime Services and local police for a strategic think tank on parking in the new year.