By Jenna Daroczy, Parramatta Sun, 17 February 2011

PARRAMATTA businesses are the only ones in western Sydney forking out thousands of dollars a year in parking levies while the whole state is sharing in the benefits.

Charities, sports goods stores, couriers and other businesses that need parking spaces are slugged the $710 fee for each car space they either own or rent from a landlord.

The revenue is to be used to encourage the use of public transport, in particular in the areas with the levies, but Parramatta businesses say they are not seeing anywhere near value for money.

For the full list of projects funded by the levy, click here.

Roman Dechnicz is the vice-president of the Parramatta Chamber of Commerce and managing director of RAD Consulting. Both organisations pay for car spaces.

"The current situation is diabolical," he said.

"There are 9000 commercial car spaces in Parramatta, everything from Westfield's parking towers to small businesses that have one or two spaces.

"You take 9000 and multiply it by the $710 each space is paying - we're not seeing anywhere near that level of investment in local infrastructure."

The NSW Transport Department says the levy is designed to "discourage car use" and to use the revenue "to encourage the use of public transport", especially in the districts paying the levy.

A spokeswoman said the levy has "helped fund important public transport infrastructure and services for the Parramatta community".

Since the levy was introduced in 1992, $363.27 million has been raised in revenue and $159.27 million has been spent on Parramatta projects.

These include dredging the Parramatta River and installing new ferry wharves in 1993 ($10.6 million) and the new bus layover facility in 2008 ($220,000).

The state government's parking space levy applies to all commercial car spaces in Parramatta, North Sydney, Milsons Point, Sydney City, St Leonards, Bondi Junction and Chatswood.

CHARITY AT HOME:

Even charities are not exempt from the parking levy. Chamber of commerce president Trevor Oldfield is also chief executive of Kids West, an organisation that supports western Sydney hospitals and sick children.

“We pay the full $710 for our parking space, and every dollar we pay in levies is a dollar we can’t spend helping kids,” he said.

“Most taxes exempt charities but because we don’t own the building, we just rent our space and our car spot, we have to pay the landlord the full $710. The way the levy is applied and spent needs to be reconsidered.”

DEEP CONCERN:

Judith McDonald has owned the Scuba Warehouse in Parramatta for 25 years.

The business has two car parks for loading and unloading heavy equipment to and from the store.

“We have customers coming from all over Sydney, today alone I had one from North Sydney and one from Wollongong – we couldn’t operate outside of the CBD,” she said.

“Our customers buy an average of 18 kilograms of equipment, you can’t take that on a bus or train.’’

LEVY SNAPPED:

Ron Ross runs Snap Printing Parramatta and needs three car spots for his courier vans.

“I’m not happy about having to pay the levy,especially when it’s not clear where it goes,” he said.

“We generally go to our clients, pick jobs up and deliver them, so we need spaces for the work cars. There’s lots of things it could be spent on in Parramatta, like park-and-ride stations outside the CBD for better movement around the city.”

BUS TARGETS CAR LEVY:

This week, the NSW Business Chamber’s state election campaign bus visited Parramatta.

Chamber chief executive officer Stephen Cartwright said they were travelling around NSW to raise talking points.

“The parking tax is levied on most businesses in Parramatta and not paid by other businesses in western Sydney,” he said.

“While the theme of the bus is ‘NSW deserves better’, it is just as fair to say that western Sydney deserves better.”

WHERE HAS THE MONEY GONE? ALL OVER NSW:

6 new and 3 repaired ferry wharves

10 new and 14 upgraded rail/bus interchanges

20 new and 15 upgraded commuter car parks

[Click here for the original Parramatta Sun article.]