Austinmer Beach will be one of the locations impacted by timed parking. Photo: Guillaume David.
Spending long summer days lounging at the beach could soon be a thing of the past in Wollongong with timed parking about to be introduced at a number of the region’s most popular spots.
Wollongong City Council is implementing the new restrictions at key locations across the city from next Monday 15 January in a bid to provide more opportunities for people to snag a spot and stop vehicles staying in spaces all day long.
“On a hot summer’s day, parking can get tricky at some of our foreshore locations and so we’re taking this step and introducing timed unpaid parking to better improve access for everyone to our foreshore areas,” Wollongong City Lord Mayor Gordon Bradbery said.
“We’ve taken a targeted approach and will introduce two-hour and four-hour timed unpaid parking at some of the more congested spots to pick up a car park. We’ve considered the spaces we know that are prone to parking congestion, thanks to their popularity, and put this measure in place.”
Areas that will be affected include Bald Hill at Stanwell Park, with part of the carpark changed to an unpaid two-hour timed limit.
In carparks at Austinmer Beach, Flagstaff Point and the pool carpark at Port Kembla Beach, four-hour limits will be imposed.
Parking surrounding Port Kembla in areas of Cowper Street and Olympic Boulevard will be timing out at two hours but the existing beach carpark at the lower level will be opened for longer with more parking to be marked in the overflow space.
And additional parking is being added near Bellambi Beach to the carpark on Robert Cram Drive with directional carpark signage installed on Rothery Street.
“We’ll be monitoring these changes over summer and noting whether or not they’ve improved parking availability and turnover in places like Austinmer, Port Kembla and in Wollongong,” Cr Bradbery said.
The Lord Mayor also urged beachgoers to follow signage and bays marked out to help keep carparks safe.
“We want our community to be safe as they move through a carpark, whether driving or walking to or from their vehicle,” he said.
“This is why it’s important people park in the marked bays, and it’s not a free-for-all. Those bays are marked for safety, for sightlines and so that other people can also access the space.”
Community consultation on the timed parking was conducted throughout 2023, with the Wollongong City Traffic Committee approving the selected location late last year.
Compliance officers will be out throughout the summer enforcing the new time limits and parking restrictions.
Loading ...
