New Parking Permit Scheme for Echo Point to be reconsidered
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Blue Mountains Mayor Mark Greenhill will take a Mayoral Minute to the next Council meeting, asking that the new Parking Permit Scheme for Echo Point be reconsidered.
Mayor Greenhill said: “This decision, to implement the scheme in early 2020, was made in August 2019, before our awful summer.
“In light of the recent bush fires, and their impact on tourism, we now need to defer this and think again.
“Therefore, I will take a Mayoral Minute to the next Council Meeting asking the Council to put off the April implementation date and rethink this strategy.
“The bushfires have changed everything and Council needs to do what it can to support our community to recover.”
The change was to mean that permits would be limited to residents and business within the designated Echo Point parking precinct. It was to be enacted to help address issues with parking demand and the availability of parking spaces, and improve the balance between resident, visitor, and business parking needs.
Despite the Blue Mountains being one of the most visited tourist destinations in Australia, Council currently recovers a small amount of revenue from visitors. This means ratepayers are currently subsidising visitor infrastructure.
A decision on delaying the Parking Permit Scheme will be finalised at the Extraordinary Council Meeting, scheduled for 20 February 2020.