Rockingham parking laws passed

Parking fines across the City of Rockingham will be raised from $65 to $100 after councillors last week voted to approve a new local parking law.

The City’s parking laws had not been reviewed in 12 years, with Mayor Barry Sammels saying the changes would “bring the law up to date”.

City officers said the current $65 penalty for parking offences was considered too low to act as a deterrent and was disproportional to the costs of collection by the City if unpaid.

“This increase to $100 modified penalty is in line with other local governments, and it will be sometime before the City undertakes another review,” they wrote.

Councillor Matthew Whitfield again put forward an alternate motion to alert residents of the changes and educate them on the more “obscure” offences via the City Chronicle, however this was defeated for the second time in as many months.

During debate, several councillors said they believed the City already did a good job of alerting residents to the changes and would continue to do so.

The new local law will need to be gazetted in mid-January with the City then having 14 days to enact it.