Sydney parkers have long suspected that parking rangers are driven by targets and parking fine quotas. A recently leaked council document confirms these suspicions that until now, have been difficult to prove.
The document, originating from Ku-ring-gai Council in Sydney, details a “Parking Ranger Work Plan” in which officers’ performance is measured by a “budget income expectation $50,000 per quarter per officer”.
The Daily Telegraph reports that a spokesperson for the council confirmed that the document was legitimate and such measurements are common practice across local government in NSW.
The belief of parking rangers working to quotas is not just limited to Sydney councils. In late 2009, the Herald Sun reported of Melbourne parking officers claiming they had been bullied into issuing additional parking fines. Parking rangers were each pressured to issue as many as five parking fines per hour. One Melbourne council reported a record $43 million in revenue raised from the issue of parking fines.
Many parkers are finding the risk of a parking fine too great and are heading to parking facilities managed by private operators.
