Low Rent

Last week, the Wentworth Courier reported Waverley Council's intention to start charging operators of "car share" companies for the reserved parking spots they have enjoyed on parking scarce Eastern Suburbs streets.

Needless to say, the owners of these car share companies were unexcited.

A WAVERLEY Council plan to charge parking fees for car share companies will lead to fewer spaces for shared vehicles, GoGet director Bruce Jeffreys claims.

Mr Jeffreys has been seeking permission for 15 extra spaces but after the Courier told him about the plan - mooted at Waverley Council’s last meeting - he said he would revise this to five.

Why should they have to pay? They're umm... Saving the Planet!

In this week's Wenty, Arnold Kluck, director of Bayswater Car Rental offers a challenge:

Further to your article in last week's Courier, we attach our current rate notice ($175,000) and land tax bill ($480,000). We have a fleet of 1,200 Corollas which we run from our Kings Cross office and have invested many millions of dollars to provide clients with alternate car use. These rental cars provide similar economic, environmental and social advantages as a car share scheme.

On average, we pay $2,600 per space, per annum in council rates and land tax for each of our 250 car spaces that our Kings Cross office holds. Car share companies pay $46 for each of their street car spaces.

We do not whinge about the slump in tourism, the spluttering economy, or carbon tax, but we do object to our council rates subsidising our competitors on flimsy ideological grounds.

If the state and local governments agree to reduce our annual taxes to $46 a car space, we undertake to offer car sharing from our office at half the rate of the present operators. This will return street parking back to the Community.

Bring it on.

Chances of the State government or local council reducing rates are, of course, zero. Waverley Council, despite rates and collecting tens of millions of dollars annually just in parking fines, is nearly broke.

Local councils wasting huge amounts of money "on flimsy ideological grounds" is standard practice, be it enforcing nuclear free zones or getting involved in Middle Eastern Politics. If they were a business, they would be out of business.