Bathurst Regional Council workers marked lines in George Street between Russell and Keppel streets on Tuesday.

The lines are only on one side of the street, adjacent to Machattie Park.

Council’s director of engineering Doug Patterson said the trial line marking would be closely monitored before the other side of the road is marked.

He said the line marking comes in the wake of a resolution by council to improve parking consistency in the CBD.

Mr Patterson said council would trial this section initially to see if people are able to park at the correct angle, which is a sharper angle than what many people park at currently.

“There will be no fines at this stage, it is simply a trial,” Mr Patterson said.

He added that the move is part of an overall proposal to improve parking in the CBD.

Some of the businesses in the block where the trial is taking place have their doubts about the move’s effectiveness, although no one is strictly opposed to it.

Craig Sharah from Country Fruit said of greater concern to him is the extension of parking time limits in the block from one hour to two hours. He said this is stopping customers from getting into his business. 

“I don’t think the lines will make any difference,” he said.

Katherine Palma of Cosven- ture said she can already see no one is parking at the right angle, despite the new lines. 

“I think the parking patrol will love it though,” she quipped. “I don’t think it’s much of a problem, but if council has had complaints they should act on it.”

Luke Mulligan of Crema said he doesn’t mind the idea, but he is not sure it will work.

“You do see some weird and wonderful parking,” he said.

“I think there are certain people that will not be able to park at the correct angle without having a few goes at it. 

“I am concerned other drivers will get impatient and put pressure on them and that could lead to an accident.” 

Traffic committee chairman Councillor Warren Aubin said he was approached by a community member just the other day asking when council was going to put 45 degree parking through the whole town.

“That’s why I wanted a trial – to see if it is workable, and then go from there,” Cr Aubin said.

“Maybe we will introduce it through the whole CBD eventually.”

Cr Aubin said most people currently park at around 60 degrees, but Bathurst’s streets are too narrow to make it official, so the angle has to be 45 degrees. 

He said the sharper angle would keep traffic flowing better because cars won’t need to swing out so far into traffic.

“I am looking forward to seeing how it all works,” he said.

Cr Aubin said the initial trial period would be about three or four weeks.

“The more people practice parking at that angle, the more they will get used to it,” he said.

“There will be no fines at the moment, but if there are no dramas we could look at that down the track.”