Council is considering installing parking meters in Wagga CBD

Retailers have been riled by a landmark transport report urging council to scrap free parking in the city.

The $240,000 blueprint for Wagga’s transport future concluded the city has too many car parks and free spaces were bad for business; the antithesis of the local business community’s outcries.

Fitzmaurice Street business owners fear parking meters will drive their customers to major plazas. 

The much-hyped report suggested introducing “paid parking into the (central activity district), which will in turn allow the private sector to provide more parking”.

Transport consultant MRCagney suggested restricting the amount of parking spots and making drivers pay for the privilege would enable “council or other investors to get a return on the parking they supply”.

“A good quality measure of whether there is a genuine shortage in parking supply is how many private sector investors are trying to get into the parking market in Wagga,” the report said. 

“Wagga obviously has a significant oversupply of parking.”

Third generation Payne's Carpet Court owner Ryan Payne claimed paid parking would worsen trading conditions for retailers on the main street. 

“No one can get a park along Fitzmaurice Street, so we will probably sell up next year and move to Hammond Avenue,” Mr Payne said.

“Council’s spent a quarter of a million dollars on a transport study but no one has come around to ask what businesses want.

“Paid parking is not going to work; shoppers have had it good for so long that they won’t spend money to park on the main street.

“All it will do is drive people to the shopping centres where parking's free.”

Nemo's Fish and Chips manager Darryl Kelly has attracted thousands of signatures for angled parking in Fitzmaurice Street; a potential solution ignored by the study’s author.

“Paid parking wouldn't work because nobody's around to police it,” Mr Kelly said.

“People in the bush people expect free parking.

“Reducing the width of the median strip along Fitzmaurice Street and installing 45-degree angled parking would be the way to go.

“You can tell the bloke who wrote that report doesn't live in Wagga; it would have been better to spend $240,000 on a multi-storey car park.” 

Wagga council’s chief financial officer Natalie Te Pohe said resident responses would influence the outcome of the final Integrated Transport Strategy.

“(Council) will consider paid parking matters along with all other integrated transport matters as part of the public exhibition period which will inform the development of the strategy and implementation plan,” Ms Te Pohe said.

Council has urged residents to read and respond to the transport report online at wagga.nsw.gov.au/ourtransport.

Written submissions – due by Friday, March 31 – can also be emailed to council@wagga.nsw.gov.au or mailed to PO Box 20, Wagga Wagga NSW 2650.

Hard copies of the report can be picked up from the customer service desk in the Civic Centre.