Hume council will spend $170,000 to create indented parking bays in three of the city’s narrowest streets where residents are regularly fined for parking on nature strips.
Councillors voted on July 19 to create the parking bays at Winchester Way in Broadmeadows, McLaurin Avenue in Roxburgh Park and Acland Street in Craigieburn as part of its parking-on-narrow-streets policy.
The council will spend a further $30,000 to create indented bays in other streets at the request of property owners. The owners will be required to contribute $1000 towards each bay.
The council created the policy after years of complaints by residents who have copped fines for parking on nature strips in streets that are too narrow for two cars to park.
Under the policy, a street is considered to be too narrow if, when two vehicles are parked at the kerbside opposite each other, there is less than three metres of road width available for through traffic.
Council officers inspected 38 streets in Meadow Heights, Jacana, Broadmeadows, Roxburgh Park, Craigieburn and Sunbury, many of which had been the subjects of complaints from residents.
Nine streets were found to warrant indented parking bays, including Winchester Way, McLaurin Avenue and Acland Street, which were found to have the least amount of on-street parking space. The council expects to fund parking bays in the remaining six streets in coming years.
Cr Geoff Porter said the bays were needed because parking on the municipality’s narrow streets had become a “headache” for the council. “I know people think they’re doing the right thing putting the wheels up on the nature strip to make a clearway,” he said.
Cr Porter said changes to state planning policies to allow narrower streets had left the council and the community with a “large burden”.
