The City announced last week that it will charge fees for on-street parking bays in De Waterkant, Kloof Street in Gardens, and Main Road in Kenilworth.
Tariffs will be levied on certain streets in De Waterkant, along Kloof Street in Gardens, and on some of the busier side streets intersecting Kloof and Main Road in Kenilworth to ensure a steady flow of parking spaces for visitors.
On-street parking will be managed between 08:00 and 17:00 on weekdays, 08:00 and 13:00 on Saturdays, and there will be no parking management on Sundays or public holidays.
Residents on Kloof Street, who did not want to be identified, claim they were not informed.
“I am completely opposed to it.” “It won’t even help the city, but it will help a corporate institution,” the resident explains.
According to the City, managed parking will benefit customers who require parking near shops, restaurants, service centres, and other destinations.
It also states that businesses that rely on walk-in traffic will benefit because customers will find it easier to find on-street parking because parking management is a deterrent to the illegal occupation of on-street parking bays for extended periods of time.
However, some Kloof Street businesses disagree.
“We already have limited parking,” says Desiree Tsuma, Floor Manager at Eatstanbul Restaurant. If our customers have to pay for on-street parking, we will suffer because they will choose to park elsewhere. It would be helpful if they gave us designated parking.”
“I don’t think it will affect us that much,” says Logan Coutts-Rogers, a part-time Manager at another restaurant. Our regular customers are already aware that parking is limited here, so some of them walk instead. It will, however, have an impact on us as employees. This implies that we will have to pay for parking.”
Clients use Shift Expresso Bar to work remotely, sometimes for several hours, according to Alex Kays, Junior Manager.
“People can spend hours here. They would be unable to do so if a parking tariff were implemented. Because they are aware that they will have to pay for food and parking. We were also not informed about this.”
The City plans to implement a pilot resident permit system for De Waterkant within the next two weeks as a mechanism to reserve parking on the outskirts of managed areas for residents only.
This is to prevent visitors to businesses and restaurants from parking in on-street parking bays in residential streets near areas where the City charges a tariff for the use of an on-street parking bay, according to Rob Quintas, Mayco member for urban mobility.
“More information will be made available soon,” Quintas says. The lessons learned from this pilot will help the City fine-tune the system for possible roll-out to other areas where parking management is used.”
“Parking tariffs are not intended to be punitive, but rather to ensure a high turnover of parking bays in popular recreational and business areas,” he adds. This benefits both visitors and businesses because parking spaces will not be occupied by the same person for hours on end.”
The applicable parking rates are R3,40 per 15-minute period.
Cash payments are accepted using SnapScan, debit card, or credit card.
Drivers must pay for parking in advance. This is to prevent motorists from returning to their vehicles and driving away without paying the marshal.
According to Quintas, the goal of parking management is to stimulate economic activity and provide access to businesses that need to create jobs.
“We must ensure that motorists pay for parking bays and adhere to time restrictions.” Motorists frequently refuse to pay marshals or simply ignore the time limits imposed. This is critical, especially given the City’s and businesses’ current economic recovery.”
According to Quintas, a clamping protocol is being implemented in which repeat offenders who attempt to avoid paying or refuse to pay will have their vehicle’s wheels clamped.
Repeat offenders will be fined, he says, and parking violations will be fined between R300 and R1 000, depending on the violation.
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