Two Clarence residents have been slapped with eye-watering $1,010 fines for parking on grass next to the Howrah Community Centre car park, sparking calls for the council to revise its penalty system.
The drivers both faced circumstances where standard parking spaces weren’t viable options.
Ian Verdouw was collecting his children from school with a trailer attached to his vehicle.
“I had a trailer on, there was no other options for parking. Quick as I could, got the kids, [but] came back to find a $1,010 parking ticket on my window,” Verdouw said.
“To be honest, I thought it was a typo. I thought it might have been a $110 fine.”
Andrew Cane received his fine in the mail two weeks after parking in the same area while taking his dogs for a walk.
“When we went back to council the next day, they said, no, it’s not a joke. That’s what it is. $1,010,” Cane said.
He said the fine is disproportionate to reality and suggested a more reasonable fine could be applied.
“I could carry a gun and [the fine] is only worth $400, $500 around in public. I park a car on grass and I get a $1,000 fine.”
“A reasonable fine [is needed], not where it could send someone broke or not eating for a week.”
Labor MP Meg Brown has condemned the council’s approach, labelling the fines “outrageous” amid the current cost of living pressures.
“The Clarence Council should waive these massive tickets until it puts in place a fines policy that’s based in the real world,” Brown said.
“There’s a cost of living crisis and having four-figure parking fines in our suburbs is completely out of touch.”
Despite appeals to Clarence City Council, both motorists say their requests for leniency have fallen on deaf ears.
“After talking to the council, they’ve done no good. The council just don’t want to know. They just want us to pay,” Cane said.
Speaking to Pulse, Clarence City Council CEO Ian Nelson said the explanations provided by the two drivers “are not deemed reasonable excuses for ignoring parking requirements and placing others at potential risk”.
“Council is not unique in setting fines, they are designed to discourage certain behaviour. ”
“With that in mind, this fine, for parking illegally on a nature strip or council land, is achieving an appropriate outcome,” he said.
“The infringement was issued under council’s Public Places By-law which was adopted in 2018. In this case, the offence relates to Public Places Bylaw 2018, section 30(1) and carries a penalty of five units.”
“These rules were formally put in place by Council and we’re required to apply them consistently — we can’t simply change or ignore them.”
