PAID parking in the Hamilton CBD is one step closer to going hi-tech with the Southern Grampians Shire Council further specifying details for upcoming changes to street metering at Wednesday evening’s meeting held in Penshurst.

Wellbeing, Planning and Regulation director, Rory Neeson, opened the discussion and said that Council had adopted the Hamilton CBD (Central Business District) Masterplan in 2020 which in part covered the broader future of parking meters in the CBD.

The document recommended Council keep paid parking, but upgrade to new parking meters with additional payment and enforcement technology.

The September 2022 Council Meeting voted to remove 204 pay-by-space parking meters and replace them with ‘next generation’ parking meters by allocating $160,000 from retained earnings to initiate the project in 2022-2023.

At the meeting this week it was explained that to better integrate with the Shire’s existing infringement software, a procurement exemption was sought specifically to purchase 25 Duncan Solutions Next Generation Pay by Plate machines, each of which will serve about eight spaces; software associated with the system will also have an ongoing licence fee.

The meters are solar-powered and include - as a mitigation to panel shading or prolonged bad weather - the ability for the internal batteries of the units to be charged remotely.

The agenda item proposal also promoted the cashless and paperless aspects of the system.

“Pay-by-phone applications mean that motorists can use Apple Pay, Android Pay and other digital wallets to minimise the circulation of cash and create a digital paper trail for all parking transactions,” the statement said.

“While many compliance teams use state-of-the-art Bluetooth printing devices for tickets, the system proposed enables Council to issue digital tickets with motorists avoiding paper tickets altogether.”

With the allocation of funding was a $10,000 budget to remove the existing machines, not all of which are even functional - 15 bays have no meters, six are missing poles and over 40 are displaying faults.

Overall, there are only 140 meters that are operational, delivering a 70 per cent equipment effectiveness.

The ability to repair defective meters was also reported in the agenda as “severely hampered by ageing technology, availability of spares and resources to repair infrastructure”.

Mr Neeson admitted locals would need some time to adapt once the new system was up and running.

“Following the decision at (Wednesday’s) meeting, further engagement and consultation with the community is planned,” he said.

“We understand that these will be new meters, so we want to make sure we’ve got an education-first approach as part of the removal of the old meters and installing of the new ones.

“We will have our rangers out in the street actually educating people about how to use these if they are unfamiliar with the technology in terms of putting a number plate in and paying by card.”

During the discussion, councillor Bruach Collition asked what would happen to the old meters, to which Mr Neeson said there had already been enquiries and “we are planning to actually release these for the public to be able to go through an expression of interest in line with our disposal of assets policy”.

“I think the value can alter a bit depending on the condition of them and whether they’re still working (or) whether they’re not working,” he said.

“I think … on some of the online forums from anywhere up to $1000 to maybe only $100.”

In moving the motion, Cr Katrina Rainsford admitted “none of us are very pleased about how to pay for parking, but it does make the world move” and added “there are (still) plenty of free parking spaces”.

“We’ll keep our disability parks,” she said.

Mr Neeson said Council believed the expense for the machines would be returned in about three years and hoped in consultation with the supplier, the project could start soon.

“We’d like to see that happening by the end of this year or at the very worst early next year,” he said.