Council waives parking fines
The City of Perth will be issuing one-off parking cautions in the spirit of Christmas but the City of Vincent has emerged as the most forgiving council when it comes to fines.
Perth council chief executive Gary Stevenson said in recognition of the bigger crowds in the city which may result in drivers taking longer than expected, council officers will be handing out cautions instead of fines for short overstaying during the Christmas-New Year period.
A survey of Perth's inner-city councils showed that though the City of Perth had the most parking infringement exemptions, Vincent had the highest proportion of fines withdrawn.
In the 2012/13 financial year, Vincent withdrew 2636 fines out of more than 32,000 issued, representing 8.1 per cent of all tickets and $187,000 in potential revenue.
Over the past three years, of the council's 65,861 infringements issued, 6042 have been withdrawn, or 9 per cent.
The top reasons for withdrawal included forgiving residents not properly displaying permits, ranger error and extenuating circumstances such as financial hardship or disability.
Vincent chief executive John Giorgi said though parking brought in revenue - $6.7 million in the past year - for the council the main purpose of fines was to increase turnover of bays.
"Because we are so close to the city, our parking often gets taken advantage of by people commuting into Perth," he said.
"This really clogs up our neighbourhoods and strips and has to be managed."
In the City of Perth, 6.3 per cent of parking infringements were withdrawn out of 118,000 issued.
The fine exemptions represented more than $500,000 of potential revenue.
Perth council made $65 million from parking revenue in the past year and expects to make almost $70 million in 2013-14.
The City of Cambridge issued 9900 fines over the year and withdrew 7.4 per cent.
The City of Stirling, which includes Scarborough and Mt Lawley, issued 6165 infringements and withdrew 5.5 per cent.
The City of Subiaco was the strictest parking council issuing 29,000 fines and exempting just 360, or 1.2 per cent.
