BRISBANE residents will pay $300,000 a year to park outside their own homes.
Payment is due this week for previously free residential parking permits for 14,500 homes in restricted parking areas across the city.
People will be slugged $10 per car per year up to a cap of $25, but angry residents say it is a rort and the prices will just keep going up.
Lord Mayor Graham Quirk yesterday promised the fees would not go up while he was in office.
Cr Quirk said permits were introduced to allow inner-city residents and their visitors to park near their homes without paying for CBD parking, but that the scheme now cost almost $500,000 a year to administer.
He said the new fee would help cover that cost.
“In Sydney, the costs of the same scheme are up to $100 and in Perth it’s $85 and other capital cities charge significantly more than the $10 fee,” Cr Quirk said.
Cr Quirk said the number of resident and visitor permits had jumped from about 42,000 in 2011-12 to almost 76,000 in 2012-13.
SCROLL DOWN TO SEE IF YOU’LL PAY TO PARK
Herston resident Marissa Melloy said it was already difficult to have friends and family over to visit and the paid parking added insult to injury.
Payment for residential permits in restricted parking areas across the city is due this week, with residents having to pay up to $25 a year.
“As a young mother it’s been difficult to have people over with their babies because it’s so difficult to get a park,” she said.
RESIDENTS PAYING TO PARK OUTSIDE THEIR OWN HOMES
•City (excluding Roma Street Parkland precinct)
•South Brisbane
•South Bank
•Petrie Terrace
•Spring Hill
•Fortitude Valley
•Newstead
•parts of Bowen Hills
•parts of Mayne
•parts of Kangaroo Point
•parts of West End
•parts of New Farm
•parts of Highgate Hill
•parts of Kelvin Grove
•parts of Herston
•parts of Woolloongabba