Starting 31 January 2019, amendments to section 123C of the Road Transport (General) Regulation 2013 were introduced by Road Transport (General) Amendment (Parking Fine Flexibility and Grace Period) Regulation 2018 which states that Councils will now be required to implement a regulated 10 minute grace period for certain paid parking offences that have a duration of more than one hour. These changes will affect all parking fine issuing authorities including NSW government agencies, Local Councils and Universities. These changes are compulsory and are not related to the recent NSW governments ‘opt in’ provisions to reduce the amount of parking fines.
What this means for you?
- Councils should ensure that their authorised issuing staff are made aware of these changes when issuing parking fines from 31 January 2019.
- Councils are encouraged to update any relevant manuals, procedures and systems that are involved with respect to parking fines.
Conditions for 10 minute grace period:
Councils are only required to enforce the 10 minute grace period if the following parking conditions are met:
- A fee has been paid for one hour or more immediately before that grace period commences;
- A coupon or ticket is displayed; and
- Parking is not in a shared zone or other excluded area.
The grace period does not apply if, at the time in which the vehicle is parked, one of the following restrictions apply to that specific area:
- Free parking area
- A shared zone within the meaning of the Road Rules 2014
- Where a prescribed parking control sign is in place, such as:
- bus lane, clearway, special event parking, transit lane, free parking, no stopping, clearway, loading zone, bus zone, mail zone
- Long stay or multi-storey car parking (where no time limits apply)
- Metered Parking
- Paid Coupon or ticketed parking of less than an hour
For more information, contact our office or read the full circular here – https://www.olg.nsw.gov.au/sites/default/files/19-01.pdf
