Media Release
4-10-06
Matson Pledges Support for Mathew's No Parking Meter Party
Greens Councillor Murray Matson thinks Charles Mathew's new No Parking Meter Party is “fair enough” even though no Randwick Councillor now supports parking meters.
Cr Matson states that the new party will allow its' supporters to express themselves at the polling booths and that this will “... be democracy in action, which the Greens support”.
He elaborates,
“For me community opinion is important and I thus think Charles's idea of running a No Parking Meter Party is fair enough. The lesson from the 2005 anti-parking meter campaign was that Councillors must heed the weight of public opinion.”
Cr Matson states that healthy and vigorous debate allowed Councillors to stay in touch on the parking meter issue in 2005 and to respond accordingly. He says,
“Labor Councillor Michael Daley and Liberal Bruce Notley-Smith amended the original proposal at the 2005 meeting to exempt all our residents from having to pay the meters any where in the Council area.
But it made no difference. I sat in the Mayors office reading submission after submission against meters and realized that we would have to drop it completely.”
The No Parking Meter Party intends to remove the existing meters from the public parking meters at Coogee Beach that were placed there in the time of a former ALP Mayor.
Cr Matson thinks that the No Parking Meter Party should air this policy prior to the next election because community services would have to be cut.
He said,
“To get a mandate for removing them Charles must tell residents that Council's spending on community services will have to be cut by the revenue per year that those meters bring in.”
Cr Matson suggests that the No Parking Meter Party publish a list of which Council services it thinks could be cut.
He said,
“We will be able to commence a vigorous public debate once the No Parking Meter Party publishes a list of the community services that it thinks could sustain cuts.”'
CONTACT: Randwick City Greens Deputy Mayor Murray Matson