By Abbey Cannan
A paid-parking system at Noosa Marina has business owners and customers fired up including one man who took to social media after being hit with a $77 parking fine for not entering his car registration upon arrival.
Noosa Marina general manager Warren Smith said that the paid parking system, which allows the first three hours for free, was introduced to free up more space for customers.
“There was a lot of people leaving their cars in our car-park for over three days from places like the Fraser Island tour buses,” Warren said.
“So, it’s to alleviate all those people that were not necessarily patrons of the Marina from using up our car parking space.”
Warren said 20 signs had been erected in the car park to alert patrons to the paid parking and it had made a dramatic difference to businesses.
“Our patrons have actually increased by about ten-fold. So, it’s made a marvelous improvement to the restaurants and shops here because people can now come and find a car-parking place,” he said.
“The man that complained on the community page answered his own question really, at the end of it he said ‘I went to find where the machine was having walked past it upon entering but never noticed it’. And at the end he said ‘obviously my error’. So he’s admitting his own fault isn’t he?”
Warren said he would encourage other centers to also implement paid-parking.
“All our tenants are very please about it,” he said.One business owner said the system had been a bit of trial and error over the initial six months and their business had remained busy.
“Some people were concerned at the start but I think customers are starting to get used to it,” they said.
However other Noosa Marina business owners told Noosa Today they had concerns over the paid-parking system.
“I don’t agree with it at all. A lot of older people don’t understand it and some of them only carry cash and the parking can only be paid by card,” one business owner said.
“Whether it has increased visitors at all, I’m not sure but I’ve dealt with a lot of confused and frustrated customers over the parking. There should be a boom-gate upon entering so that everyone is aware.”
Another business owner described the paid-parking situation as “a disaster” with customers saying they had no idea they were supposed to register on arrival.
A third business owner said they had received two to three complaints about parking fines from customers each week.
“These large fines drive the customers away. Some other business owners might agree with it but I definitely think there needs to be a better system in place. The current signs around the car park are small and would be hard to read for older people. Even my own staff members have received parking fines after entering their registration, despite the fact that staff are meant to get it for free.”
Cars entering the Noosa Marina car-park need to register their number plate in the pay machine. After the first three hours of free parking, more time can be purchased by following the prompts at the pay machine. There is no need to check out when leaving.
