The Swakopmund municipal council has approved new parking meter regulations that are set to be submitted to the Ministry of Justice for publication in the Government Gazette – reviving a decision that caused an outcry within the community five years ago.
The new regulations are poised to redefine the parking landscape in the coastal town, with an array of sections encompassing definitions, control of parking fees, parking hours, parking marshals (car guards), service providers and penalties for offences.
The finalised regulations have received the green light from the Ministry of Justice’s Directorate of Legislative Drafting and will now proceed to the gazette office.
“It is vital that the council approves these regulations in order to control the use of this limited resource (parking space),” said the chairperson of the council management committee, Wilfried Groenewald, at the ordinary council meeting.
He further warned of potential safety hazards should these regulations not be put in place. “Without regulation, there could be little regard for safety.”
In 2017, a similar approval of parking meter regulations, with an accompanying parking meter system, caused an outcry among the community, resulting in the municipality temporarily suspending it.
The system, which cost the municipality about N$1,5 million then, was heavily criticised for its perceived ineffectiveness and was labelled as ‘chaotic’ by disgruntled motorists.
According to Groenewald, the approved regulations will contribute to managing the use of parking space effectively, curbing prolonged use of parking spaces at the expense of others, particularly in the central business district.
The Swakopmund Residents’ Association, which has several seats on the council, called the decision “dismaying”.
“No doubt this is going to cause some issues. But to be fair, in our town centre much of the difficulty in parking around the banks and businesses is because the employees of many institutions take up all-day parking there, so this restriction will free spaces for the public,” the association posted on social media. It is understood that it will be a similar parking system used in Cape Town where time is metered.
The council’s decision has been met with both acclaim and criticism.
Peter Odendaal, a local resident, expressed his satisfaction with the decision. “About time that a decent parking system is introduced – it is simply not acceptable that a lot of spaces are taken up by people working in the area.”
He believes that a robust system would ensure the availability of parking spaces for visitors and not just the workforce in the central business district.
However, not all residents share the same optimism.
Julia Lendo questioned the benefits of the new system to the town, calling it “pure nonsense”. She wondered about the tangible advantages of the system apart from potentially making parking spaces available more quickly.
Mark Groenewald expressed his concern over the recurrent attempts to introduce such systems.
“So, we are doing this again? How many times has this failed and what were the costs of those failures?” he asked.
Lars Kulikowski suggested the need for a comprehensive public transportation system.
“A bus service to and from all corners of Swakop is needed too. Buses don’t need to park if they always drive and travelling becomes affordable,” he indicated.
Several residents wondered about the economic impacts.
“Everything is already very expensive,” said Christina Engels.
