The state government is operating an unusual, quasi-legal parking scheme for members of an elite gym at Moore Park while cracking down on local councils using the same system to benefit their residents.
About 110 parking spaces on Driver Avenue – which runs alongside Allianz Stadium and the Sydney Cricket Ground – are now reserved exclusively for members of the Sporting Club of Sydney, a fitness centre owned by government agency Venues NSW with a joining fee of $22,000. The members’ regular car park is being redeveloped.
The permit parking regime outside Allianz Stadium and the SCG is contrary to guidelines issued by the Transport Department.Credit: Nick Moir
But the on-road signage – “No parking: permit holders excepted” – contravenes the government’s own guidelines, which stipulate that any permit parking scheme must offer at least one hour of “permissive parking”, open to all.
Roads Minister John Graham and the Department of Transport could not answer questions asked on Friday about whether the scheme was lawful, whether the road was subject to the same rules as other roads, or which government agency ultimately controlled it.
Last year, the government clamped down on the system that had been in place for decades at Watsons Bay. The Liberal-controlled Woollahra Council reserves about 70 on-street spaces for residents of the beachside suburb, some of whom do not have carports.
Warned by their own lawyers that the setup was probably unlawful, the council replaced the “No parking: permit holders excepted” system with signage that allowed for only 15-minute parking, with exceptions for permit holders.
The residents-only parking scheme that operated at Camp Cove, in Watsons Bay, has been replaced by 15-minute parking with exceptions for residents.Credit: Brook Mitchell
The government objected to that, too, with Graham accusing the council of “taking the rest of us for mugs” and sending a message that other Sydneysiders were not wanted in Watsons Bay.
Graham vowed to intervene, and in May, Transport for NSW published new guidelines setting out the one-hour minimum. Woollahra Council has vowed to fight the new directive.
The Driver Avenue scheme has been in place since April and is expected to last about two years, except game days when it is a clearway. Sporting Club members can register their number plate through an app. People who park there without a permit are liable for an $80 fine issued by Venues NSW, which leases the spots from another government agency, Greater Sydney Parklands, and polices the scheme.
The guidelines allow Venues NSW, as a “declared organisation”, to implement permit parking schemes, but they must also follow the guidelines.
The Driver Avenue scheme has taken over what are normally public parking spaces. The road is a clearway on game days.Credit: Nick Moir
Woollahra Liberal councillor Mary-Lou Jarvis said the double standard showed that “without a shadow of a doubt, this is targeted at the eastern suburbs and Watsons Bay”.
“They’re imposing [the rules] in the misguided idea that these people are elitist. They’re not,” she said. “They’ve got no parking, and they’ve got no chance of putting parking off the street because they’re heritage-listed cottages.”
Venues NSW did not answer questions about the legality of the scheme, but said using the road and other areas would help accelerate the car park development “by 20 months”. It said the Village Precinct and Car Park project would deliver new public open space, a playground, food and beverage offerings and parking for 1500 cars. It would also enable the permanent removal of on-grass parking from Moore Park East, the agency said.
Independent MP for Sydney Alex Greenwich has said he sought commitments that money paid by Venues NSW to Greater Sydney Parklands for the parking spots would be reinvested in Moore Park, not other assets across Sydney.
“As population density grows, we need to see parklands as environmental and community health assets rather than empty land to be exploited for commercial use,” he said.
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correction
An earlier version of this story incorrectly reported the Sporting Club of Sydney has an annual fee of $22,000. This is the joining fee.