Northern Grampians Shire Council’s local laws officers will be enforcing signed parking time limits and breaches of restricted parking zones such as disabled parking, loading, bus and taxi zones as of July 3. 

The affected areas will be Main Street, Stawell from Patrick Street to St Georges Street and Wimmera Street between Scallan Street and Sloane Street as sign-posted.

At St Arnaud​, Napier Street between Inkerman Street and Mill Streets, including signed parking zones in streets intersecting this area as sign-posted.

Mayor Cr Tony Driscoll said a number of business owners from within the Shire complained many people were not following the parking time limits in place across the towns’ business areas.

“This is restricting fair access to car parking within our major towns,” he said.

“The flow-on from that lack of access is that our business owners are missing out on potential business because people simply cannot get a park in the appropriate areas.”

StawellBiz president Chris Waack supported the move and said it was important to keep Stawell’s car parks moving. 

“We don’t want cars on Main Street parking well past the time limit,” he said. 

“Policing these zones will mean more people can park, run in to the shops and get what they need at ease.

“And if you want to shop for longer you can park behind the supermarkets.”

But the move has been questioned by some. 

Stawell resident Terri-Lee Campion recently had an operation on her foot and said it would now be difficult to navigate shopping at a fast pace.

“I believe this to be a sad revenue raiser for the council,” she said. 

“There are a lot of elderly residents in our town who find the steep hills a difficult task when shopping, and especially myself as my foot has been operated on.”

Resident Karl Meyer said his biggest thought was why the parking restrictions had stopped being enforced.

“The signs have always been there and it’s very sudden to start enforcing it again after all this time,” he said.

“If we are policing this, which is a good idea, we should then start policing the disabled car parks outside schools where anyone seems to park in.”