THE City of Ballarat has announced parking will be free across the municipality between 1 December and 31 January.<\/p>\n
While time limits will still apply, the move comes as the city seeks to roll out its new parking infrastructure.<\/p>\n
Freshly minted Mayor, Cr Ben Taylor said the announcement of free parking would be great for Christmas shoppers.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople say council is the Grinch, but we\u2019re not,\u201d he said. \u201cChristmas is coming early.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSomething we hear about at Christmas time is parking. That awkwardness with the coins if you don\u2019t have the coins.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re removing the meters between 1 December and 31 January and the parking will be free. You don\u2019t have to put any money in or swipe or anything like that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Free parking over the first two months of summer is due to the roll-out of new parking meters and infrastructure ahead of the city\u2019s new parking plan.<\/p>\n
All current old meters will be switched off, removed and replaced with new technology.<\/p>\n
\u201cAcross this city there are so many different types of parking meters; coin only and there\u2019s some card swipe,\u201d he said. \u00a0\u201cWe\u2019re seeing something like 100 faults a day with these meters. It\u2019s actually causing pain.\u201d<\/p>\n
Because time limits will still be enforced and parking inspectors out and about during December and January, the city hopes the move will be a dry run for implementation of the new parking plan that will allow for one-hour free parking.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need turnover, but really what we want is people in the city, shopping locally and this is a great opportunity to do it,\u201d Cr Taylor said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
THE City of Ballarat has announced parking will be free across the municipality between 1 December and 31 January. While time limits will still apply, the move comes as the city seeks to roll out its new parking infrastructure. Freshly minted Mayor, Cr Ben Taylor said the announcement of free parking would be great for […]<\/p>\n