Traders’ group wants data on free CBD parking

THE City of Greater Geelong says free parking in central Geelong did not increase spending by enough to continue the initiative but the founder of a new group representing the CBD’s traders wants to see the raw data.

Free parking was introduced in all 2 hour, 2P, on-street spaces in central Geelong on 14 July last year in an attempt to drive more visitation and lift spending in businesses.

The initiative initially appeared to be going well, with the city announcing in January more than 422,000 2P parking sessions had been used in the first five months.

However, the city’s 2026–27 budget cancelled free parking in favour of measures directly supporting local businesses, such as free alfresco dining permits.

Geelong mayor Stretch Kontelj said free two-hour parking was popular and provided useful information about parking behaviour but “did not result in a significant increase in retail or hospitality spending as we had originally hoped”.

He said the data showed total spend in central Geelong only increased by 0.1 per cent in the September 2025 quarter and 1.8 per cent in the December quarter

“With these figures well below inflation, that’s a decline in real terms,” Cr Kontelj said.

Cr Kontelj said customer numbers grew by 4.2 per cent in December 2025 but total spend did not increase accordingly.

“The only sector that actually grew was takeaway and fast food outlets, suggesting that free 2P parking increased activity around short-term convenience, but it didn’t actually encourage people to stay in central Geelong and spend more with local businesses,” he said.

Geelong Retailers Association founder Bec Lamont wants free parking to be brought back and said she would press Kontelj for more details at a meeting later this month.

“I want data – show me the data saying [free parking] doesn’t work,” she said.

“Just give me that information and then we’ll take it back to the committee and review it for ourselves and say ‘OK, this is what the data’s showing us, what can we do about it?’.”

Lamont said two-hour free parking was a success in the main streets of other municipalities but the limits were not enforced properly in Geelong.

“I can count on one hand how many parking inspectors I’ve seen walk down Little Malop Street in the last month,” she said.

“You see cars parked all day and that was the issue, they [the council] said: all-day parkers are taking parks away from customers.

“But if they just enforce the time limit and put infringements on those all-day parkers, they’ll still get the revenue coming in from the infringements and they’ll have a continuous flow of traffic going through the city.”

She said parking in central Geelong was the catalyst for her to start the Geelong Retailers Association earlier this month.

“That was the thing that just tipped me over the edge,” she said.

“I can complain about it but I’m going to put my money where my mouth is, I’m going to do something about it as well.”

The association has 35 members from the CBD’s businesses now and aims to reach 100 by the end of the year.

For more information, head to geelongretailersassociation.com.au