- Councillor angers Lord Mayor Robert Doyle by going public with Melbourne parking profit
- By ANDREW JEFFERSON, JOHN MASANAUSKAS
- 30/07/2015 Make a Comment
- Contributed by: Richie ( 2 articles in 2015 )
Councillor Stephen Mayne
PARKING fees and fines are a goldmine for the Melbourne City Council, producing revenue that’s running almost $5 million ahead of budget.
Council confirmed it had collected $93.1 million in 2014-15 — $49.3 million in parking fees and $43.8 million in fines — $4.5 million more than it had budgeted for.
But Lord Mayor Robert Doyle accused Councillor Stephen Mayne, who revealed the excess during a council meeting this week, of breaching financial confidentiality, saying the release of such data had to be subject to a proper process, including auditing.
“Councils get themselves into trouble when they start breaking those rules,” he said on Wednesday.
“You’re undermining the authority of the CEO ... it stems back to councillors doing the wrong thing and putting egos in front of the rules.”
But Cr Mayne said the Lord Mayor should support more transparency: “I don’t believe it was confidential, but Cr Doyle does have a tendency to keep matters unnecessarily secret.”
Cr Mayne let slip the figure in a debate on a review of private car share schemes, including the extent to which ratepayers should subsidise them.
Council aims to provide 2000 car-share spots — half on-street and half off-street — by 2021 as it encourages people to give up cars.
Operators pay less for on-street spaces than council would get from metered parking, so council could lose up to $600,000 a year.
Cr Mayne said it should not quibble about the subsidy.
“Just today (Tuesday) we were told that we’re $2.9 million ahead of forecasts this year on car parking fees and $4.5 million on overall parking revenue,” he said.
Cr Doyle retorted: “Councillor, I’m actually not sure we can make that public yet.”
The mayor said the extra revenue was mainly due to the delay in creating new bus lanes on Victoria Parade.
Council confirmed it had collected $93.1 million in 2014-15 — $49.3 million in parking fees and $43.8 million in fines — $4.5 million more than it had budgeted for.
But Lord Mayor Robert Doyle accused Councillor Stephen Mayne, who revealed the excess during a council meeting this week, of breaching financial confidentiality, saying the release of such data had to be subject to a proper process, including auditing.
“Councils get themselves into trouble when they start breaking those rules,” he said on Wednesday.
“You’re undermining the authority of the CEO ... it stems back to councillors doing the wrong thing and putting egos in front of the rules.”
But Cr Mayne said the Lord Mayor should support more transparency: “I don’t believe it was confidential, but Cr Doyle does have a tendency to keep matters unnecessarily secret.”
Cr Mayne let slip the figure in a debate on a review of private car share schemes, including the extent to which ratepayers should subsidise them.
Council aims to provide 2000 car-share spots — half on-street and half off-street — by 2021 as it encourages people to give up cars.
Operators pay less for on-street spaces than council would get from metered parking, so council could lose up to $600,000 a year.
Cr Mayne said it should not quibble about the subsidy.
“Just today (Tuesday) we were told that we’re $2.9 million ahead of forecasts this year on car parking fees and $4.5 million on overall parking revenue,” he said.
Cr Doyle retorted: “Councillor, I’m actually not sure we can make that public yet.”
The mayor said the extra revenue was mainly due to the delay in creating new bus lanes on Victoria Parade.
Source: https://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/councillor-angers-lord-mayor-robert-doyle-by-going-public-with-melbourne-parking-profit/story-fnpp4dl6-1227462178409
1Will not be visible to public.
2Receive notification of other comments posted for this article. To cease notification after having posted click here.
3To make a link clickable in the comments box enclose in link tags - ie.<link>Link</link>.
4To show an image enclose the image URL in tags - ie.<image>https://fredspage.com/box.jpg</image>. Note: image may be resized if too large
To further have your say, head to our forum Click Here
To contribute a news article Click Here
To view or contribute a Quote Click Here