Whilst this item has been deferred by Council to 2014, the following questions were submitted to Council.

On behalf of the Chatswood West Ward Progress Association I have a number of questions relating to the report that I am hoping you can oblige with a response.

1.      Where can one obtain a copy of Volume 2 of the report?

2.      Where is the data showing relative cost per paid parking compared with the costs for similar periods in off-street parking stations?

3.      Can some attention be given into the report for the consistent use of terms such as Town Centre, Regional Centre, CBD etc or can definitions be provided for these terms?

4.      There are a number of inconsistencies with numbering and the like in the report. Many maps are not readable in black and white format. It looks to the reader that the report has been rushed to publication. Can some attention be given to these matters?

5.      The term ‘fringe’ is used on a number of occasions, as such it is non-definitive. Can the term fringe be defined (even loosely)?

6.      This report is predominately a STREET Parking Strategy, yet within the report there is mention of off-street parking. Can we have a single report that holistically deals with parking (including off-street parking)/

7.      We thought that Council’s community engagement strategy called for engaging the community for instances such as this in the actual development of the draft Policy. Why hasn’t the community been engaged in the development of the Draft Policy?

8.      It appears that this Strategy has not been reviewed by the Willoughby Traffic Committee. Why not?

9.      What is the source of the figure that 35,000 of the 65,000 jobs within Willoughby are filled by local residents?

10.  What is the source of the figure that 24,000 vehicles come into the City to satisfy the 65,000 jobs?

11.  The majority of section is difficult to understand (including Table 1. Can this section be reworked?

12.  In section 3.3 how (specifically) is it proposed to either provide additional dedicated mobility parking spaces or to encourage the use of existing spaces already provided in off-street car parks?

13.  The question unanswered by the ‘at capacity’ argument is where do drivers seeking short term roadside parking go now? Wouldn’t we assume they go to one of the carparks that are cheaper than on-street short term parking on the fringes of the cbd?

14.  The study uses a simple radius approach. Chatswood West of the Highway is steep and the 20min extent would in fact be much closer to the Highway than shown. Can a more appropriate method of drawing the desire lines be developed?

15.  Re 3.5.2 regarding paid parking in residential streets, is there an alternative to parking meters available?

16.  With regard to the suggestion of all day parking for”the cost of a cup of coffee” (around 50 cents per hour) how confident can we be that cash-strapped Councils will not increase the fee)?

17.  In relation to the excess funds raised by paid parking being invested in specific sustainable transport initiatives, how confident can we be that cash-strapped Councils will adhere to such a policy? (A similar policy was initially adopted when paid parking was first introduced in the city. Within a couple of years money raised was going into consolidated revenue).

18.  How confident is it that households will be able to be issued with 3 perking permits given the requirement that the number of permits cannot exceed the number of available on-street spaces?

19.  Where do we have ‘designated long-stay parking areas’. Are they like a parking  station or are they designated residential streets? If the latter, wouldn’t these by definition (that the parking strategy favours residents near employment and transport nodes) be in residential streets further from the nodes? If these are new parking stations, how much will they cost and how would they be funded?

Terry Fogarty

Secretary Chatswood West Ward Progress Association