North Sydney Council drafts tougher boat trailer parking policy

Council has released a draft trailer parking policy that will introduce street signs that specify only vehicles, and not trailers, will be allowed to park in areas where demand is high.

Under the proposal, North Sydney residents – more precilsely, a minimum of 30 per cent of the residents of any street – will be able to band together to ask council to introduce “No parking motor vehicles excepted” signs to their street.

Once it receives a petition, council will then have to inspect the street on at least two different occasions up to 60 days apart. In that time, council must observe either a minimum of two boats parked, or 10 per cent of the available parking space taken up with boats.

The draft policy then says council will then need to ask its parking services department if the street has a history of fines for leaving trailers unattended for more than 28 days – in 2016, North Sydney Council made the whole of its municipality a 28-day move-on zone for boats.

If the answer is yes, the new restrictions will be introduced.

The Boat Owners Association of NSW has come out swinging, calling on its members to make sure their voice is heard during the draft policy’s consultation process, which ends on Sunday, July 19.

“Trailer boat parking in the harbourside North Sydney area is already regulated with 28-day move-on laws under the Impounding Act and, as of 2019, on-street parking bans for non-motorised vehicles in certain areas – bans which the [north Sydney] Council had to narrow in response to opposition from boat-owning residents,” the association said.

“Responsible boat owners believe such restrictions are already more than adequate to resolve issues with hazardous or neglected trailers if the council had a genuine will to enforce them.

“Instead, the council seems bent on regulating boat trailers out of existence under the guise of a complaints policy that amounts to a total betrayal of boat-owning residents,” it said.

“The BOA opposes the council's move to minority-led bans on trailer boat parking.”

Boat parking in Sydney has long been a contentious issue, with no resolution despite the injection of state government funds to find a solution to the problem.

Areas within Sydney that are a boat impoundment declared area include Canada Bay City Council; Hornsby Shire Council; Ku-ring-gai Municipal Council; Lane Cove Municipal Council; Mosman City Council; Northern Beaches Council; North Sydney Council; Randwick City Council; Sutherland Shire Council; Willoughby City Council and Woollahra Municipal Council.