A STARTLING warning for some people to immediately cease parking in New Norfolk’s central business district was the talk of the town last week. The front page of last week’s Derwent Valley Gazette carried the surprising news that Derwent Valley Council planner Martin McCance had written to all CBD businesses warning that shop owners, occupiers and staff were not to park outside their premises.
It seems the council has had complaints that some workers were leaving their cars parked all day in “spots meant for customers”. The New Norfolk Business Alliance agreed that this practice was equal to sabotaging local business, but the council’s response seems a little extreme.
The article did not mention whether Mr McCance’s edict also applied to council management and staff, many of whom enjoy all-day parking right outside their workplace – which is also in the central business district. Neither did the article say what authority a council planner has to prohibit any person from legally parking in any location in the CBD, whether it be a 30-minute spot or the five-minute zone outside the post office.
Instead of issuing an unenforcable instruction against lawful parking in the CBD, the council would be better advised to instruct its rangers to start enforcing all parking limits in High St and surrounds. After all, the 5 and 30-minute limits are designed to prevent long-term parking but are next to useless without enforcement.
