Irregularities regarding Bankstown Council's decision relating to the Marion Street Carpark

My wife and I are tax paying residents of Bankstown and have been using the Marion Street rooftop carpark daily for the past three years to commute work by train from Bankstown station. We have always appreciated the facility being available.

On 15 September 2009, when we arrived at the Marion Street carpark at our usual time (approximately 7:50 am), we were surprised that there was not a single carpark space available. Out of desperation and urgency to get to work on time, we decided to park in a space at the end of one of the two middle rows of carpark spaces which, while not technically marked, did not interfere with the carpark’s traffic flow nor cause inconvenience or obstruction to others.

When my wife and I returned to our car from work that afternoon, we found a parking Penalty Notice on our windscreen for not parking in a ‘marked parking space’. Also on our windscreen was a short hand-written note from a fellow commuter who wrote:

“Dear Car Owners,

I was parked in front of you & also received a fine. I intend to ring the Council & complain as they blocked off the ground area for all-day parking causing this level to be full.

I have parked here for 10 years & am not happy.”

I have since discovered that Bankstown City Council (the Council) recently decided to convert the entire all-day carpark area on the outdoor ground floor of Marion Street carpark to restricted 4-hour parking. It means that commuters using Bankstown Station to commute to work are now left with 139 car spaces on the Marion Street rooftop carpark as opposed to approximately 250 previous available when both the rooftop and outdoor ground floor were available for all-day commuter parking.

In addition, the Council also decided to substantially reduce the number of all-day parking available at the nearby Greenfield Parade and Meredith Street multi-level carparks by completely removing all all-day parking at the Greenfield Parade carpark (formally levels 8 and 9) as well as converting the ground floor of the Meredith Street carpark to 4-hour restricted parking.

The combined effect of these decisions have been that commuters using Bankstown Station to travel to work who used to park at the Greenfield Parade or Meredith Street carparks now have to jockey every morning with former users of the ground-floor Marion Street carpark and compete with Marion street rooftop carpark users for one of the 139 all-day carpark spaces now remaining.

I am perplexed at how Bankstown Council could come up with these decisions considering that according to the 2006 Census, some 1,502 residents of Bankstown commute to work by train[1]. While other councils are actively working with the NSW Government to take advantage of the announced $56 million mini-budget to construct much needed additional commuter carpark facilities to promote the ‘park-n-ride’ initiative and reduce traffic congestion and carbon emissions from cars on the road, Bankstown Council saw fit to substantially cut back existing commuter carpark facilities in disregard of the needs of Bankstown commuters.

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[1] Community Profile: 2006 and 2001 Enumerated Census information for Bankstown, Bankstown City Council – ID Consulting Pty Ltd, dated 18 August 2008, p.55