SHOALHAVEN Mayor Joanna Gash is keen to investigate paid parking in the Nowra CBD supermarkets car parks.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The idea was flagged with the mayor by local resident Margaret Espley.
Mrs Espley raised the idea in Wednesday’s South Coast Register after complaining about receiving parking fines in the town centre.
She said a ticketing system for local shopping centres, where customers paid for parking, should be implemented.
“In other areas, shoppers can receive up to two hours' free parking and after that pay for the time they are there,” she said.
It is a suggestion Cr Gash said she would take to this week’s meeting of the CBD Action Group this week.
“It is something that we will investigate,” she said.
“I’m wondering if it might work. We definitely don’t want to make it harder for people trying to park but we don’t want to see people getting fines either.”
Mrs Espley has had a win over her recent Berry Street Parking fine, with the mayor agreeing to pay the fine.
Mrs Espley claimed some parking signs in the Nowra CBD were misleading after she was fined for parking outside the former Better Electrical store next to the Shoalhaven City Arts Centre in Berry Street.
She parked half across the drop driveway into the vacant building, and said nearby parking signs didn’t indicate parking wasn’t allowed.
Hearing her story, Cr Gash has offering to pay the $100 fine.
“Sanity has prevailed,” Mrs Espley said.
“The mayor said she felt it was unfair and offered to pay the fine herself, for which I’m grateful,” she said.
Cr Gash said she parked in the same location all the time and had never been fined.
“The signs definitely don’t say you can’t park there,” she said.
“It just seems unfair. I felt it was only fair to pay her fine, considering I had got away with it for so long.”
Cr Gash said the parking signs would be changed to reflect parking was allowed.