Local Law: Parking

Information

Information

The City is in the process of updating its local laws. Many were made in 1999, and were contemporary in their day, but require updating to the point where replacement in many instances is warranted, and will be presented to Council on a case by case basis.

The City’s current Parking and Parking Facilities Local Law was made in 2003, and updated as required. It has a number of deficiencies that require addressing, but the extent of amendments required is such that it is simpler to make a new local law.

A proposed City of Wanneroo draft Parking Local Law is attached. While many features are similar to the current local law, some salient points are:

• Part 2 deals with metered zones. As is the casewith its current Parking local law, the City may not have any use for this Part in the immediate future, and its inclusion does not require it to introducepaid parking either. This Part simply establishes the ability of the City to do so if it wishes.

• Clause 4.2 deals with parking permits. Thisclause is widely scoped to give the City the ability to deal with a variety of situations, as well as any issues that may presently be confronting it such asresidents who may be having difficulties with commuters parking around train stations and the like. The local law establishes the ability for the City toissue permits and provides for a penalty if the correct permit is not displayed.

  Council policies or resolutions,or delegated authority can then be used to establish matters such as:

  • Eligibility for a permit;

  • How many permits might be issued;
  • If a permit expires annually or carries on indefinitely;
  • Times of the day or week that restrictions might apply;
  • Circumstances under which infringements might ormight not be withdrawn; and
  • Any fee that might be payable to issue a permitor replace a lost one.

• Parking stations are simply established by the City under clause 1.4. Extending the local law to private property can be done by agreement, without the need to change the Local Law. This could be done by the CEO under delegated authority and subject to whatever conditions Council might put upon the delegation, but would prove particularly useful if the City was of a mind to use the local law to (for example) assist a business affected by long term parkers who might also not be customers; similarly as part of any agreement to extend the local law to private property, the City might require signs to be erected to the standard set in the local law.
• References to ACROD parking permits (ie the need for a person with a disability to display a permit issued under the rules of the Australian Council for the Rehabilitation of the Disabled (WA) to park in specially marked and sized bays) have been replaced with references to 'disability parking permits’, which came into effect with the making of the new Local Government (Parking for People with Disabilities) Regulations 2014.
• Clause 7.9 provides that parking on a verge without the consent of the adjoining occupier is an offence, as is the case under the current local law.

• Enforcement provisions in Part 9 are similar towhat the City has in place at present but include additional provisions such as for a minimum fine to be imposed if a matter proceeds to a court hearing.
• Provisions tying modified penalties in Schedule 2, to the amounts set out in the City’s proposed Penalty Units Local Law. This will allow for ease of updating modified penalties in future without the need to amend a whole raft of local laws.

Comments

Comments can be emailed to enquiries@wanneroo.wa.gov.au, mailed to the Chief Executive Officer, City of Wanneroo, Locked Bag, WANNEROO WA 6946, or made in person at the City of Wanneroo, Administrative Centre, 23 Dundebar Road, Wanneroo.