“We are outraged at the almost complete lack of any concern for additional parking in the draft CBD Master Plan,” committee spokesman Lance Sewell said.

“For the master plan not to come up with parking options is like designing a shopping complex or an entertainment centre without enough toilets.

“We note in the information given to us, in which improvements to the landscape in Egans Lane, Junction Court and the Northern Gateway to Nowra are revealed, that parking is only mentioned three times and only then as almost insignificant after-thoughts,” Mr Sewell said.

“How can the draft plan be taken seriously when it states that it is a framework for the CBD centre to grow, that there are strategies to improve the quality of the public domain as a catalyst to encourage future development and yet our biggest urban problem in Nowra CBD is the parking?”

“And yet Nowra’s completely inadequate parking is not addressed.”

“Council can think about and do all the improvements that they might like to do in the master plan but they are useless unless people can park.

“Our committee must stress that none of the ambitious purposes of the master plan, as presented, are worth the paper on which the plan is written, unless parking improvements become Nowra’s number one priority.

“Lack of adequate parking is choking Nowra. A realistic rethink on parking is needed to breathe air into Nowra’s future,” Mr Sewell said.

The CBD Parking Development Committee has decided to press council for immediate funding to plan for developments on the all-day car park on the corner of Worrigee and Berry streets.

A recent petition, signed by 3000 locals and the more recent questionnaire conducted by the Parking Princesses, has revealed that almost all of the 856 people expressed hostility to the inadequate parking conditions in Nowra CBD.

“We set out to survey people for 10 days but stopped after five because we were overwhelmed with information,” Mr Sewell said.

“Our survey also exposed that the working personnel in Nowra find it impossible to be able to park in any convenient all-day area if they arrive in town after 8.15am.

“Most employees arrive after that time and many are forced to temporarily park their vehicles in the time-restricted zones, taking up valuable spaces that can be used by shoppers.

“We don’t condone such parking methods by employees or employers but it’s an often necessary fact of life as the poorly used Bridge Road all-day car park is distant.”

Mr Sewell said a parking station at Worrigee-Berry streets would make available more spaces for people requiring longer parking times.

“It would be something for people going to the movies, doctor and dentist appointments and long-term shoppers and visitors who at present are threatened by parking fines in the time-restricted zones.”

He said that this development would release the necessary space for short-term shoppers and, more importantly, the elderly.