Hidden costs of parking in North Sydney CBD bad for business

The surcharge of up to 2 per cent levied on plastic for that morning coffee is a gnawing ache for many, but if cafes decided to charge an 8.25 per cent transaction fee on every payment they’d certainly lose a lot of business.

No such worries crease the brow of North Sydney Council, where business acumen is so lacking that the planned $58 million redevelopment of the historic Olympic Pool has blown out to more than $100 million and is two years behind schedule.

Now on top of that mess, the council has outsourced its new $2 million parking meter system to a private company that is soaking motorists with an 8.25 per cent transaction fee for parking payments on the “touch-and-go” meters. And, for good measure, it is making it extremely hard for consumers to find the true cost.

In July, the council introduced a cashless system that suggests drivers download an app and create an account which demands personal details, to park their car. Drivers lashed out, claiming the system was overcomplicated and intrusive: to create an account, drivers are required to give their full name, phone number, email, postcode, car registration and credit card details. The well-hidden 8.25 per cent service charge on top of the parking fee was the insult to the injury.

But something was gnawing at Crows Nest resident Simon Berry, and he found that despite being told it would cost him $6.90 to park for an hour, he was being charged $7.47. “Unless you go through the process of clicking on a link inside the terms and conditions, typing in a zone number, and pressing it, you won’t know the fee that’s being charged,” he said.

So Berry wrote to PayStay, the company contracted by North Sydney Council to run its new parking system, saying he believed the transaction fees were in breach of Australian consumer law because the total price of a product or service is required to be displayed as a single figure.

PayStay, owned by Orikan, a two-year-old Australian/New Zealand company bringing what it describes on its website as “the first truly holistic, end-to-end smart parking solution to the market”, replied, saying it had obtained external legal advice on the matter and had decided “to make some updates and other changes”.

Well, well done you. Except a North Sydney Council spokesperson told the Herald’s Anthony Segaert that customers could avoid fees by walking to an old-style meter, before admitting some parking zones only had new “touch-n-go” meters. The spokesman defended the charge as being associated with “additional services provided by Orikan through their app and meters”. No hint was forthcoming of what they might be.

Nine years ago, the council was NSW’s second most complained about municipality. Councillors and staff have squabbled, the Olympic Pool costs blew out and now the parking gouge only adds to North Sydney Council’s record of dubious achievement.

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