Northern Beaches Council have set an “expectation” that landlords should provide at least one beach parking permit to their tenant.
The Beach Parking Permit Policy, which came into effect last month, ensures every rate payer is provided with two free beach parking stickers per property. It now also encourages tenants who are not eligible for a permit to request at least one sticker from their landlord in their rental agreement, or rather, suggests that the landlord should offer it.
The stickers provide four hours of free beachfront parking at Manly, Queenscliff and Shelly beaches as well as free, unlimited parking in most other waterfront carparks across the Northern Beaches.
Northern Beaches Greens’ Councillors have pushed for for the change, with Cr Kristyn Glanville saying the move is fairer for renters and reduces the ‘permit black market.’
“There is a level of unfairness that people who are – relatively speaking – better off and able to have an investment property, get spare stickers that they don’t probably need,” Cr Glanville told Manly Observer.
“Whereas people who are ordinary residents, who are renters, who are probably, relatively speaking, less well-off members of the community have to stump up if they buy it legitimately from Council for $250 bucks or otherwise participate in the pen black market.”
The ‘pen black market’ refers to the well known tactic of ratepayers selling their spare Beach Parking Permits on websites like Facebook Marketplace under the guise of items such as pens. This kind of redistribution of permits is not allowed.
Council is not able to enforce the move, which is why it is a stated expectation rather than a requirement.
One issue is that Council only knows who owns properties, whether the owner chooses to lease it is undisclosed. There is also no way of tracking how the permit is used once it has been mailed to an eligible recipient.
As Council begins to digitise more of their services, these issues may become obsolete as permits will be easier to track, but until then, the policy is just encouraged.
“In the next couple of years, Council will be shifting to a digital system where you’ll have to log on and register your number plate to use one of the permits. And so I think at that point in time, we probably will need to look at the policy and refresh the wording, because it will be easier for us to make an enforceable policy around having to share permits,” Cr Granville said.
Beach Parking Permits are issued yearly with rate notices and are only available to eligible groups. This includes ratepayers, schools, community groups, retirement villages and Council contractors and owned vehicles. The number of stickers each group can have varies.
Residents who are not ratepayers, e.g. tenants, must fork out $250 for an annual permit which allows for free parking in over 40 locations on the Northern Beaches. Non-rate payers in other LGAs such as Mosman pay $65 for an annual sticker, but this only works about six areas.
The Northern Beaches’ policy change aims to alleviate some of this financial pressure from residents in line with the State Government’s plan to look at alternative options which could see beach parking stickers more accessible to everyone – possibly at Councils’ expense.
Equal Sticker Deadline
Councils said they were blindsided when NSW Roads Minister John Graham held a sudden press conference making a stance against free beach parking stickers for rate payers only, earlier this year, 23 January.
“The principle we would like to apply is that regardless of whether you rent or own, you pay a similar amount for these [Beach Parking Stickers] or you have the same access to the scheme. That’s what we’re asking councils to consider,” Mr Graham said.
The announcement offered no plan on how to roll out equal sticker privileges for residents other than councils to not discriminate against tenants when issuing permits. A consultation deadline of until next summer was given for LGAs to come up with their own strategy.
One exhibited guideline outlined in the State Government’s new Permit Parking Guidelines (PPG) draft did appeal to non-residents, forcing councils to grant people living outside the LGA the ability to purchase beach-type permits, a NSW Transport spokesperson told Manly Observer.
Northern Beaches Mayor Sue Heins said she was disappointed by by approach, sharing that the “half a million dollars a year” made from Beach Parking Stickers significantly contributes to beach cleaning, safety and rock pool cleaning.
“I just kind of wonder where this is actually going to end because I don’t know if there’s going to be any extra money… I know that $250 may sound like a lot, but that gives you a year of parking at the beaches. If you park at a beach all day, it costs $40 so that’s virtually six days that you’re paying for, and the rest of the year is free,” Mayor Heins told us back in January.
Mosman Mayor Ann Marie Kimber was also unimpressed by the surprise announcement, saying the $65 parking sticker fee for renters “is not going to change their life.”
Mosman and Waverley Council are already adhering to the new PPG draft guidelines, offering Beach Parking Permits to people living out of the area for an upscaled price of what residents pay.
But Northern Beaches Councillors have their reservations of what this part of the policy could bring.
“A problem with a lot of the State Governments rhetoric is basically they were kind of the Oprah approach; you get a permit, you get a permit, everyone gets a permit!” Cr Glanville said.
“They have to have some sort of price signal to discourage an infinite number of permits being issued because we don’t have an infinite number of parking spots.”
At the moment, the State Government’s new PPG draft is under consultation. It currently states any off-residence parking permit issued by Council must be made available to all residents and that pricing cannot be used to disadvantage specific groups – it does not mandate that any permit be free of charge.
