News / Local
BCC: No going back on parking system
11 Sep 2022 at 12:17hrs | Views
THE Bulawayo City Council (BCC) has dismissed a petition by a section of residents and the motoring public over the parking management system, noting that there was no empirical evidence to suggest that the system was leading to the closure of businesses in the Central Business District.
The local authority further noted that it was impossible to further reduce the US$1 for one-hour charge as the charge was comparable with charges in other cities in Zimbabwe which have parking management systems.
In its response to the petition, the local authority said the petition was plagued with half-truths and falsehoods.
"The previous parking management system saw the city's parking space being divided into three parking zones with the prime parking zone charging US$0,76 for 30 minutes or part thereof. This translated to US$1,52 for one hour. This is contrary to the claim that the new parking fees have imposed a 2 400 percent increase on the parking fees, the new system is charging US$1 for one hour or part thereof for the same zone. In any case why should we still be charging the same amount when the environment has changed so much between systems?" reads the response signed by the Town Clerk, Mr Christopher Dube.
He further noted that in the previous parking system some motorists never bothered to purchase discs and booklets which were used and as a result they were accessing on-street parking for free, which saw council losing a lot of revenue through unpaid parking fees.
"Even those that were issued with tickets for various traffic offences were easily evading the system and would even go for years without paying. The current system has a way of tracking offenders and enforcement is now more pronounced. The monthly and quarterly discs did not bring the desired results as it failed to raise substantial funds to plough back to the development of the parking bays in the city. The current parking system is in a bid to revive the revenue collection and other related issues from parking and it does not follow that it should be at the same price since the environments are totally different," he said.
Mr Dube further reiterated that on-street parking was never meant to be used as garages where people park their vehicles at the same spot for the whole day. He said a rough survey has shown that there are about 200 000 vehicles in Bulawayo which at one time or another will have to drive into the city centre to conduct business, while on the other hand there are 7 200 parking bays that are under the current parking management system.
The local authority further noted that it was impossible to further reduce the US$1 for one-hour charge as the charge was comparable with charges in other cities in Zimbabwe which have parking management systems.
In its response to the petition, the local authority said the petition was plagued with half-truths and falsehoods.
"The previous parking management system saw the city's parking space being divided into three parking zones with the prime parking zone charging US$0,76 for 30 minutes or part thereof. This translated to US$1,52 for one hour. This is contrary to the claim that the new parking fees have imposed a 2 400 percent increase on the parking fees, the new system is charging US$1 for one hour or part thereof for the same zone. In any case why should we still be charging the same amount when the environment has changed so much between systems?" reads the response signed by the Town Clerk, Mr Christopher Dube.
He further noted that in the previous parking system some motorists never bothered to purchase discs and booklets which were used and as a result they were accessing on-street parking for free, which saw council losing a lot of revenue through unpaid parking fees.
"Even those that were issued with tickets for various traffic offences were easily evading the system and would even go for years without paying. The current system has a way of tracking offenders and enforcement is now more pronounced. The monthly and quarterly discs did not bring the desired results as it failed to raise substantial funds to plough back to the development of the parking bays in the city. The current parking system is in a bid to revive the revenue collection and other related issues from parking and it does not follow that it should be at the same price since the environments are totally different," he said.
Mr Dube further reiterated that on-street parking was never meant to be used as garages where people park their vehicles at the same spot for the whole day. He said a rough survey has shown that there are about 200 000 vehicles in Bulawayo which at one time or another will have to drive into the city centre to conduct business, while on the other hand there are 7 200 parking bays that are under the current parking management system.
Source - Sunday News
