That is what long-serving Shoalhaven City councillor Greg Watson has proposed as a fee for parking in a multi-storey car park on the corner of Worrigee and Berry Streets.

As councillors Watson and John Fergusson joined traffic planner Scott Wells and about a dozen business operators on a walking tour of Nowra’s parking choke points, Cr Watson said he supported the idea of a multi-storey car park being built on the corner of Berry and Worrigee streets.

“I’m happy enough to roll on with a multi-storey car park here, subject to funding plans,” Cr Watson said in the biggest concession yet from within council that Nowra’s CBD needed added parking.

He proposed building a four-storey car park providing space for about 600 vehicles at a cost of $12 to $14 million, and charging each one $5 to park all day or part of the day.

That would raise about $1 million a year, Cr Watson said, allowing a loan for the car park to be paid off in about 15 years.

While the session looking at parking options was only brief, it provided a couple of major breakthroughs for people agitating for better parking within the CBD, with Cr Watson saying for the first time he supported a multi-level car park at the location.

He also suggested going from three storeys to four, as three storeys would do little more than double the amount of parking spaces already available on the site once pylons and ramps were taken into account.

Mr Wells agreed.

“From a traffic perspective, four levels would be a better outcome than three levels,” he said.

However he warned against going any higher, as a parking block above four levels would be out of character with the surrounding three-storey buildings.

Cr Fergusson also offered his support, although it depended on further details.

“I’m broadly supportive of the concept,” he said, before suggesting any multi-storey car park be designed to allow it to grow with the town’s needs and changing face.

Cr Fergusson said council had to deal with a range of competing interests in different towns and villages, but planning consultant Peter Price said Nowra was the regional hub attracting people from all the Shoalhaven’s communities yet, “Nowra has dipped out for a very long period of time.”

As the group discussed parking problems several cars slowly circled major car parks, as drivers looked for somewhere to leave their vehicles without the danger of being booked for staying too long in one location.

The situation was so severe Annie Aldous of Aquatique said she regularly drove her workers on a loop of Nowra’s CBD at the end of the day so they could pick up their cars from wherever they were parked.

However a number of councillors were yet to be convinced Nowra had parking problems, according to Mr Wells.

“There were only two councillors here today,” he said.

“I still regularly hear from other councillors who look at the gasworks car park being half-empty, and say there’s no parking problem in Nowra.”