Residents boycotted Maribyrnong council’s final community forum before the council introduces paid parking in Yarraville next week.
The council hand-picked 13 representatives of interested parties to an information session on Monday to answer any last-minute questions before the metres are installed. But only a few traders attended.
Paid parking has been a contentious, ongoing issue, but the council claims new parking meters will offer more choice for visitors to Yarraville Village. Yarraville residents and traders are overwhelmingly against paying for parking, arguing it will destroy trade by pushing shoppers to areas where parking is free.
Megan Darling, convenor of Yarraville Village Says No to Paid Parking, said residents were “really, really disappointed” with what they say is a lack of real consultation.
“We haven’t had a single submission or concern that we’ve raised addressed correctly, and so to meet with us six days before they put in parking metres is futile,” Ms Darling said.
“We’ve heard everything they’ve had to say and we’ve received nothing back from them – just a standard email response that doesn’t address any of our concerns.
“People have put good questions to council that deserve good, well thought-out answers, and they’re just getting cut-and-paste answers back. It’s not good enough,” Ms Darling said.
More than a thousand letters and email submissions have flooded in to the council since paid parking was rubber-stamped late last year.
Shoppers will pay $1.80 an hour for parking from next month, either with coins or via a smartphone app once the meters are switched over. Charges apply between 8am and 6pm, Tuesday to Saturday, while parking will be free on Sundays and Mondays.
Six extra 15-minute parking spaces have already been installed, while more than half of centre parking, such as the goods yard and Canterbury Street carparks, will still be free.
“We’ve still got two days of free parking,” Ms Darling said. “We just wait …
“We wait until next year, when we remove the offending councillors who have caused unprecedented harm to Yarraville,” she said said.
