Newcastle's Liberal councillors are calling for a review of inner-city weekend parking restrictions to improve turnover of cars around retail businesses.
Councillors Jenny Barrie, Callum Pull and Katrina Wark have co-signed a motion to the July 23 council meeting calling for a review of the two-hour parking zones around Hunter and King streets on weekends.
They would like to see the two-hour parking limit from 9am-12pm Saturdays extended to 9am-4pm on both Saturdays and Sundays.
The motion said retail traders had suffered impacted trading due to many years of construction, including the loss of parking from the light rail, four years of Supercars event work, downturn from COVID, and more recently cost of living issues.
This combined with an increase in new residential apartments with singular car spaces "is also causing vehicles to use customer car parks in front of many small business operators", the motion states.
Visitors and shoppers often looking for a relaxed retail experience struggle to find a vacant
car park. Many residents park in the 2hr zone and do not move their car due to not enough
internal parking in the apartment blocks,
Councillors Barrie said the right mix of timed parking was complex, but that residents parking their cars all weekend made it difficult for traders to encourage their customers into the area.
"Small business is the lifeblood of the city, and we need to ensure visitors to the eastern end of Newcastle can find parking all day on Saturday, weekends and throughout holiday times," she said.
City of Newcastle has identified the East End as an area for review of existing timed parking restrictions, and for the installation of smart parking sensors.
In a response to the Liberals' notice of motion, the council's executive director planning and environment said the area had "legacy parking restrictions" from times when limited businesses traded after 12pm on Saturdays, and most businesses were closed on Sundays.
The council conducted consultation in March and April 2023 on options to review timed parking restrictions and install parking sensors around Darby Street and the East End.
Hunter Street between Wolfe and Scott street and Wolfe Street between King and Scott streets were earmarked for review and parking sensor installation.
The council said it met with Newcastle Business Improvement Association in March 2023 to discuss the review and while the majority of Darby and Beaumont Street businesses supported the use of parking sensors, businesses in the CBD had neutral/mixed views.
Smart parking sensors were installed in Darby and Beaumont streets, but put smart parking sensors on hold in the city centre, to revisit after the completion of the public domain works in Hunter Street and Wolfe Street.
"Further discussion with the Newcastle BIA is required to liaise with business owners and operators and discuss the benefits of expanded parking restrictions, to provide increased parking turnover for customers into the evening and on weekends," the director's comment said.
