Parking powers to hold powwow

The Manly Daily

Tuesday 14 May 2002

PEDESTRIAN Council of Australia chairman Harold Scruby has agreed to meet Pittwater Council representatives to discuss parking enforcement.

The proposed meeting follows a parking blitz by council rangers last week where motorists were fined for parking at an angle outside Palm Beach Golf Club and near Careel Bay boatshed.

The crackdown outraged residents, who said they had parked that way for decades, and left the council and the PCA blaming each other for instigating the action.

Pittwater Council general manager Angus Gordon last week said the PCA had waged an “unrelenting campaign” to ensure the council fully enforced parking laws and urged the group to sit down and listen to the council's implementation strategy.
Pittwater environmental compliance manager Jeff Lofts said legal advice obtained by the council left it with little option but to book people.
The advice says that while the council does have the power to issue warnings, that power is very limited and using it could open the council and its officers to charges of “improper, unlawful or corrupt” conduct.
In an e-mail to Mr Gordon yesterday, Mr Scruby said the PCA would accept his offer to meet “at your earliest convenience”.
“We look forward to a result which will ensure the safety, amenity and access of pedestrians while accommodating the parking requirements of motorists throughout the Pittwater municipality.”

* An Avalon resident incensed with a $63 parking fine received during the Palm Beach blitz has booked an advertisement in tomorrow's The Manly Daily challenging Pittwater Council to prove its case.
James Ricketson has said he is prepared to go to jail rather than pay the fine.

In the advertisement, Mr Ricketson asks if the council is legally obliged to act on complaints lodged by the PCA's Mr Scruby. Mr Ricketson has also challenged the council to release legal advice it has received.