Radio & TV - Monday 12 January, 2009

Parking rangers
2UE (Sydney)
Afternoons - 12/01/2009 - 12:37 PM
Tim Webster
Program Ph: 02 9930 9975

Webster asks if Sydney parking rangers have become too robotic. He interviews Harold Scruby, Pedestrian Council of Aust, who says that his organisation did an FOI and found that parking rangers are ignoring local schools pedestrian or No Stopping zones in favour of policing parking meters. He says that 50% of local councils have not issued one ticket to taxi drivers for illegal parking, or one ticket in school zones. Webster says he was recently booked at 11pm in The Rocks. Scruby says we can't leave road safety to local councils and he calls on the relevant NSW Govt Ministers to form a task force to ensure that councils focus on safety first and parking meters second. He says that Genia McCaffery, North Sydney Council, has confirmed that 75,000 tickets were issued in one year, with only 100 in school zones. He says the Dept of Local Govt has commissioned a report suggesting that the City of Sydney has as many as 150 parking officers. He says the fine for parking on a footpath is the same as for being in a parking meter for five minutes over, but he says you can park forever outside Michael Daley, NSW Roads Min's office, once you've been booked, which he says is almost the same price as for parking legally inside Governor Macquarie Tower. He says the fines now for parking in a No Stopping, bus or pedestrian zone are three times that for parking on a footpath. He says he has begged Michael Daley, NSW Roads Min, to review this situation and set up a task force. Webster says he was recently two minutes over the time allotted for his motorcycle in a parking zone near Grosvenor Place and ended up in a dispute with a parking ranger in central Sydney.
© Media Monitors 2009