By CASEY NEILL
PAY and display is on the way to Springvale’s trouble-plagued Number 8 car park.
Councillors approved the change from ‘pay on exit’ at their Monday 11 April meeting.
The council-owned and operated Balmoral Avenue multi-level has suffered poor patronage and technical difficulties since opening in 2012.
An independent review recommended the switch. Ticket machines were installed in March and were due to go live on 18 April.
The system will operate under the current fee structure, including an early bird rate and free parking on Sundays.
There’ll be no need for a monitoring control room, reducing operating costs.
The new machines report their own faults without the need for customer involvement, and existing staffing levels will be able to cover new patrols to monitor ticket purchases.
Councillor Sean O’Reilly said the car park was a “critical piece of infrastructure” and was pleased that listening to frustrated parkers swearing at an operator – or calling their local councillor – would be a thing of the past.
He said the 538-space car park was only half-full even at peak times and he looked forward to the day it filled, freeing up on-street parking.
“We’ll all have a party on the top level,” he said.
City planning, design and amenity director Jody Bosman said the new payment method would soon include a function for motorists to use a mobile phone app to add time to their ticket without returning to their car.
He said brochures in English, Cambodian, Chinese and Vietnamese would explain the change and that the council was working with traders.
A structural engineer is examining the car park’s layout and structure and will provide advice on options for improving traffic flow.
A report is likely to come to a council meeting in May.
