Festive gesture as parking goes free in CBD

Shoppers can use off-road parking with no charge in the centre of the city from December 1 until the end of January next year for as long as they follow existing time limit signs.

Time restrictions range from 30 minutes to all day within the CBD.

The announcement comes as part of the city's Smarter Parking Plan. All of the existing parking meters will be ripped up in the CBD from the start of December, with new meters installed.

City of Ballarat say the new meters should be up and running some time next February.

Once installed, there will still be the option to pay for parking with coins and credit cards but drivers will also be able to pay for parking using a new Smartphone app.

The City of Ballarat Cr mayor Ben Taylor described it as an "early Christmas present" for people coming in to central Ballarat to shop and do business.

"It's going to help [shopping over the Christmas period], it's going to make it easier," he said.

He also said he hoped it would encourage more people to come to Ballarat in January. "That time of year, we want people in the CBD. It's a bit quiet - why not come to Ballarat, do some shopping, walk around?"

The CEO of Commerce Ballarat Jodie Gillett welcomed the initiative. "It's a fantastic, feel-good thing for the City of Ballarat to do," she said. "Businesses will embrace it."

She added that she would like to see it become an annual thing to encourage people to shop locally.

The City of Ballarat's Smarter Parking Plan evolved from many years of discussion - some of it heated - on the best approach towards parking in the city.

It was finally approved by councillors in February this year. Under the plans CBD parking will be free for the first hour, then will cost $3 every hour afterwards.

The plans will see an increase in paid parking in the centre of Ballarat, which will be monitored with the use number plate recognition vehicles.

Several councils around Victoria already use mobile phone apps to allow people to pay for parking.

It is not yet clear whether parking revenue will increase under the plan. Cr Taylor told The Courier the plan was not to make any more revenue.

There is evidence in some places that number plate recognition technology has caused the number of fines collected to drop with drivers becoming less likely to overstay limits.

The first phase of the plan is already in place with new signs and restrictions already in force around the Zone 2 parking area - the streets around core retail and commercial district of the city.

The City of Ballarat has also been working to boost the number of car parking spaces in the city.

Ahead of the state elections last year, the Andrews government committed to putting 1,000 free car parking places in central Ballarat. When questioned on Friday, Daniel Andrews said that discussions were still under way about the location of those car parks.

He said it would most likely be a combination of state and council land used.

On the same day, the Creswick Road car park remained unopened when The Courier looked in. Announced in 2017 as a replacement for the car parking at Civic Hall, the car park is now more than a year behind schedule.

In the council's annual report, the work for the car park was highlighted as the only contract worth more than $200,000 that did not go to tender last year.

A state government sign announcing an October completion date has already been graffiti-ed before a single commuter car has parked.

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