General News
30 September, 2023
Gallery unimpressed by parking changes
People attending Horsham Rural City Council chambers on Monday night said they left with more questions than solutions after hearing about planned parking meter changes. Most in the public gallery found the council discussion underwhelming, and were...
People attending Horsham Rural City Council chambers on Monday night said they left with more questions than solutions after hearing about planned parking meter changes.
Most in the public gallery found the council discussion underwhelming, and were unimpressed and frustrated many of their concerns went unanswered.
Continued community furore over the new parking meters had led to council announcing a suite of operational changes.
However, the proposed changes failed to placate people who had raised issues with the council since the meters were installed six months ago.
Issues of concern included the lack of a time frame to implement changes - including a free half-hour of parking - and continued confusion over zones.
Kath Dumesny, who submitted a petition with 1132 signatures calling for removal of the parking meters or their disabling, said she felt "total disgust" at the treatment of her petition.
The council reduced the number of acceptable signatures to 895 and failed to report her comments or address them.
"Their response is knee-jerk reaction, and I don't know if they can deliver what they've promised," she said. "It's the meters themselves that are the problem."
She also criticised Cr Les Power: "He wouldn't take any notice of our petition because there weren't enough signatures," she said. "But he was happy later in the meeting to go along with an idea that only had 21 responses."
She was also annoyed that mayor Robyn Gulline had threatened to eject the public because people had laughed in scorn at one of Cr Powell's comments.
Community advocate and former councillor Di Bell described the meeting as "absolutely disgusting" and said the changes would not alter the fact the meters were "lemons".
"This is a mess, it's a disgrace," she said.
Jung resident Terry O'Donnell said council's ruling to not allow public questions did not help.
Council issued a media release shortly after 9am on Tuesday, detailing the "sweeping changes to improve the parking experience" which had been ticked off the previous evening.
CEO Sunil Bhalla said council had"rigorously considered every single response" from the1200 people who completed the HRCC survey andthose who had signed the petition submitted by Mrs Dumesny.
“The number one priority in local government is serving our community," Mr Bhalla said.
Cr Gulline said most of the survey and petition responses concerned "technical" issues.
When asked on ABC Radio if the campaigning, complaints and public distress over the parking meters had hindered council's reputation, shesaid Mrs Dumesny's petition had "absolutely" damaged both council's and Horsham's reputations.
"And that's really sad," Cr Gulline said.