Residents living in the St George Hospital precinct at Kogarah have been hit with a 250 per cent increase in their resident parking permits.
Parking Permits cost $10 per annum between July 2016 and June 2020 until they increased to $12 per annum in the 2020/21 financial year for streets surrounding the hospital from Ocean to English Streets and in between.
For the 2022/23 financial year Residential Parking Permits rose to $30 per annum and Visitor Parking Permits to $50 per annum.
The residents voiced their anger at last week's (August 22) council meeting.
"I now have to pay $50 for my elderly parents to visit," Maria Crowley-Sweet, who lives in the Kogarah hospital parking precinct, said.
"And that's if they are lucky enough to find a parking spot near my block. Why is the new resident and visitors parking permit exorbitant? This is well above inflation. On top of rising costs of living and council rates, why are we paying extra to park in my street?"
Kogarah resident Anna Dimitropoulos said it represented a 250 per cent increase for residents parking permits and a 416 per cent increase for visitor passes.
Such an exorbitant increase in price is unjustifiable," she said. "I fully understand the need for the council to issue parking permits for residents and their visitors at what should be a nominal fee, only to cover the costs of their production.
"Up until last year parking permits were $12. Such an exorbitant increase in price to a select number of residents is unjustifiable, especially at a time of cost of living has increased at a rate higher than wages. I'm happy to forgo the $12 but $50 is extremely excessive and it doesn't guarantee that there will be parking spot for my visitors to park in anyway."
"Other residents have also expressed their deep concern that this increase is highly inflated and share my fear that this will not be the last increase."
Councillor Elise Borg said there are seven authoised parking permit precincts in the Georges River Local Government Area and six of these are in the Kogarah Bay Ward.
"37 per cent of all permits issued are to residents in the St George Hospital precinct," she said.
Precincts include Gladstone Street to Victoria Street, Kogarah North; St George Hospital (Bowns Road, Ocean Street) and Gray Street; Ocean, Gray and Shaw Streets, Kogarah.
Councillor Borg said the council had erred by adopting such a substantial increase in the cost of parking permits.
She submitted a Notice of Motion calling on the council to review the resident parking costs.
"I appreciate the difficult job that council has in finding $4 million in savings," she said.
"However, I do not believe we should be finding these savings by charging people a 250 per cent increase to park outside their home."
A council report said the current fees and charges bring Georges River Council's parking permits in line with other neighbouring council areas adjacent to a commercial business district or hospital precinct and are reasonable for an annual parking permit.
The 2022/23 financial year fee increase was also necessary to cover the costs associated with printing the permits and the significant administration time associated with processing and issuing of the permits, the council report stated.
Cr Borg's Notice of Motion calling for the council report to look at ways of implementing a revised Fees and Charges Schedule for Resident and Visitor Parking Permits in the seven Authorised Parking Permit Areas was unanimously supported by the council.
This will include the cost implications for implementing a tiered pricing model for Resident and Visitor Parking Permits.
