Bathurst Regional Council again urged to look at multi-storey car park

Speaking at last week’s council meeting, Cr Warren Aubin said two areas, the Bathurst Sportsground and the back of the RSL, could be ideal for a multi-level complex.

Cr Ian North, meanwhile, said he was sick of asking about the issue and urged council to make a move.

“I think this is something we need to look at very, very hard,” Cr Aubin said at the meeting.

He said a traffic report before council showed there had been a 10 per cent reduction in the number of car parking places allocated to all-day parking in Bathurst’s CBD.

He said a lot of people work in the CBD and council needed to start looking after them.

He and Cr North, he said, had been “rattling on” about multi-level car park facilities for a long time.

“We really need to press on with this,” Cr Aubin said.

A mobile parking enforcement vehicle was introduced in Bathurst in March 2014, forcing many CBD workers to take up parking on the fringes of the city centre.

Cr North said council was limited by the amount of land it had close to the CBD. 

“Council can get expressions of interest [for a car park], but I’m sick of asking,” he said.

“This town is growing. We’ve been trying to grow the city, but if people can’t get out of their cars to do their shopping, what’s the point?

“I can’t see why we can’t go to the business sector and see if they are interested in developing one [a multi-storey car park]. 

“We have to think about this further. We need to think outside the square.

“All the areas where council does have land is slowly going.”

Cr Bobby Bourke did not agree that putting the solution in developers’ hands was the best idea.

“If it is done privately there will be a charge,” he said.

“Let’s find out if people are willing to pay for car parking or if they would rather council build one for them.”

Cr Bourke said in other local government areas, the revenue the council raised from providing car parking was used to pay for CCTV cameras.

Cr Monica Morse agreed that there were not enough all-day parking places in the CBD.

She said business owners and managers were concerned about staff who had to walk long distances in the dark at the end of their shifts.

The supplementary report for the draft Bathurst CBD Car Parking strategy was adopted by council. 

The report indicated that with the camera car in operation, there had been an increase in the use of all-day parking spaces and a decrease in the use of restricted car parking spaces.

It identified a number of opportunities to change time limit arrangements in relation to both existing on-street parking and off-street parking in order to increase the overall proportion of all-day parking.