<< Peninsula New 27 November 2006 - Parking fine at festival >>

Parking fine at festival

Sunday, October 12, was a beautiful day for the annual Oyster Festival at the Ettalong waterfront.

A huge disappointment to us, though, and about 20 other people, was the parking along the Esplanade, and a ridiculous parking fine to go with it.

We have a 10-year-old daughter with cerebral palsy.

We firstly started to look for disabled parking close to the event.

However, no disabled parking was allocated.

The Peninsula is already in need of more disabled parking areas, which is a surprise considering the amount of elderly people who live here.

So we drove around to try to get parking close by.

We turned right from Bangalow St into The Esplanade to find someone leaving their parking spot and parked along with about 20 other cars along The Esplanade.

After returning from a lovely day at the festival, we found we had been fined.

Parallel park to close to dividing line? $179.

A couple of things really angered us.

This festival was organised, but no thought had gone into parking.

The only sign that we could find after investigation when we returned to our car was about 150 metres up the road, certainly not where we had parked or the other 20 cars.

This is an obvious revenue-making fine.

What does it tell the visitors to this area who also may have parked along The Esplanade.

Rangers or parking officers are not normally out working on a Sunday in this area.

Have a large event, however, and they see a revenue making opportunity.

We feel the event management should be responsible for proving clear parking arrangements in an event like this and the local council are obviously responsible for providing parking signage that is clear.

Ray & Sharon Glenn Empire Bay