In 2023, the City of Melbourne introduced a Parking and Kerbside Management Plan that committed to regular reviews of the kerbside parking system based on proactive engagement in local areas and sharing the data that underpins decision-making.

Kerbside space is limited with on-street parking making up just 4% of road land use across the City of Melbourne. In Kensington, there are roughly 5,600 residents who own cars. Kensington’s car per capita is the second highest in the CoM (0.52 cars per person).

To make parking more reliable and available across Kensington, a series of parking improvements works were rolled out across Kensington from November 2024. Find out about the Kensington parking improvement works.

We’ve now returned to hear your feedback on the parking improvement works to gain a better understanding of how all residents, visitors and businesses use on-street parking across Kensington.

A key principle of these parking improvements is that the changes are not 'set and forget'. As part of our commitment to review them each year to make sure they are working well, we checked in with the Kensington community in May 2025.

This check-in process included two online workshop consultations held with external facilitators and online surveys. We also spoke to residents at the Kensington Neighbourhood Centre. Following this check-in, we began further parking improvement works in June 2025.

We will be back in Kensington in 2026 to see how these changes have worked and hear from community again.

• 311 direct invitations to community who had provided feedback on parking were sent.
• 179 direct online notifications were sent to Participate Melbourne Neighbourhood Parking Review page followers.
• 73 registered for sessions.
• 36 residents, workers and businesses from across Kensington attended.
• An additional 106 survey responses were received since parking changes began, which were used to better understand on-street parking in Kensington.

This means that since we began engagement in Kensington:

We've reached:

• Over 110+ people in person.
• Over 12 businesses and groups for direct interviews.
• Over 400+ survey responses via our 'always on' survey.
• We are just getting started. You can still have your say on Kensington parking via the 'always on' survey.

Key themes identified within the community check-in have led to immediate actions and further feedback that will form the Kensington Annual Review.

Key areas that the community wanted us to review

Epsom Road: “Where am I, and everyone else who lives on this section of Epsom Road meant to park?”

Ormond Road: “Resident parking is very difficult on weekends with activities in JJ Holland Park. The recently installed disability and drop off spots were vacant.”

Bangalore Street: “I need accessible bays closer to home.”

Mulgrave Street: “Mulgrave St parking is worse than before the plan started.”

Barrett Street: “Two No Parking bays is not needed or used.”

Fink Street: “Two hour parking is pointless in this area, where do employees park?”

Key themes the community wanted us to review

General frustration and suggestion:

• “Used to be 2P Monday - Friday and free weekends. Monday - Sunday now. Not changed issues but visitors are now restricted. Evenings can’t park (can’t get a spot after 5pm). Park a block away currently.”
• “I would like to park near my house.”
• “Extreme frustration at implementation and ongoing parking congestion.”

Permit eligibility and policy:

• “A review of permits, cost and users eligibility.”
• “1 side permit and 1 side not – working staff can’t get permits? Why? Otherwise supportive.”
• “After some back and forth with council (including where a parking permit was given to us, then suddenly revoked), it turns out we’re not eligible for a parking permit as our house falls foul of a rule given it’s a townhouse ~2016 built subdivision.”

Parking demand from development and tradespeople:

• “Once the community centre is up and running, we need to monitor pressure. 2 hours is better than it was (came in during the tunnel works). Can be harder on the weekends and varies across the day. Amount of commuter parking (some have permits and some not).”
• “The biggest problem for Barnett Street is lack of parking. Soon the apartments will fill and they will be able to park from 5pm to 9am. There will be massive demand for our few spaces.”

Communication and engagement issues:

• “I am annoyed about lack of consultation in Robertson Street about the change from 30 min to 2 hours.”
• “Surprised by what happened in our street, map on council website dropped in letter box. Contractor letter was delivered.”

Enforcement challenges:

• “How many enforcement people are there? And what is their cycle of visiting Kensington? The only time I ever see them is occasionally when I make a complaint.”
• “Reporting cars incorrectly parked, sometimes come and sometimes don’t. Examples of cars parked for weeks, $99 only for the two-week infringement. Not enough deterrent, has to be severe.”

Parking bays and line marking:

• “Parking bay marking is good. Should avoid so much damage from cars trying to squeeze in where there is hardly any room. (You should see my front number plate. It looks like a soup plate!!)”
• “What are the standard sizes of parking bays that have been marked, and has anyone checked whether they meet that. What the sizes are meant to be? And why are there random gaps?”
  

Duration of parking – too short:

• “Agree with 2hr parking but it is not enforced – turn around time can be 5 hours so people move.”
• “Used to be 2P Monday–Friday and free weekends. Monday–Sunday now. Not changed issues but visitors are now restricted.”

Key recommendations were made from the above feedback. Below is an outline of these recommendations and next steps.

Improvements to be completed June - August 2025:

• Epsom road 4P signs will have resident exemptions added.
• Mulgrave Street to be included in current schedule of works.
• Updates to Pick Up/Drop off spaces on Barrett Street and Fink Street.
• Additional quality assurance checks on new line marking in all completed areas.
• Update future communication and engagement including:
  • advertise engagement opportunities in FlemKen news
  • run in-person sessions during the Annual Review.

Accepted as priority consideration for the next annual review in the second half of 2026:

• Accessible bays monitored with occupancy data informing updates or changes on:
  • Ormond Street
  • Childers Street
  • Parson’s Street
  • Robertson’s Street.
• Need for further resident exempt parking around JJ Holland Park including Ormond Street.
• Parking updates in response to increasing pressures on parking in:
  • High development areas
  • Adjacent to the new Kensington Community Aquatic and Recreation Centre.
• Review of 2-hour time restrictions not meeting needs of visitors, workers and businesses in key locations including:
  • Ormond Street
  • Macauley Road
  • McConnell Street
  • Stubbs Street.

Under the Parking and Kerbside Management Plan we have already committed to the following which address key concerns from Kensington community:

• Develop a Strategic Parking Permit Policy that updates current parking permit framework.
• Refresh and communicate our parking enforcement approach.

Read more about the feedback we heard and engagement process in the Kensington Check in Report (PDF 512.99 KB).

We won’t set and forget the new conditions.

We will be returning to Kensington in 2026 to see how these changes have worked in our Annual Review.

Over the coming weeks, any immediate actions identified from the Kensington Check-In will begin to rollout with adjustments to some parking controls.

Any further feedback regarding these changes will be incorporated in the next Kensington parking review, which will happen in 2026.

For more information about the general improvements to parking we’ve made in Kensington and changes in your street go to parking improvement works.

You can have your say any time on parking in your neighbourhood by completing the survey.

In 2023, the City of Melbourne introduced the Parking and Kerbside Management Plan that committed to regular reviews of the kerbside parking system based on proactive engagement in local areas and sharing the data that underpins decision-making.

Data was provided, and opinions were sought on the following topics:

• The allocation of space at the kerb between parking and other kerbside uses.
• Short-stay parking. Defined as bays with a stay limit ≤ 3P that support several Arrivals across the day.
• Long-stay parking. Defined as bays with a stay limit ≥4P that support one or two Arrivals per day.
• Off-street parking. Commercial parking facilities open to the public.
• Home-base vehicles including shared kerbside vehicles for zero-car households (car share), private home-base vehicles stored off-street and private home-base vehicles stored at the kerb under the permit system.
• Enforcement of the rules of the parking system.

In Kensington, the cycle of regular reviews began with a round of engagement between February and April 2024.

The engagement process included 2 workshops (attended by over 60 residents), online surveys and interviews with key stakeholders such as sports and recreation groups, developers and State government projects.

We will be back in Kensington in 2025 to see how initial changes have worked and hear from community again.

We heard from residents, workers and businesses across Kensington.

• Residents of Kensington expressed concerns regarding the absence of on-street parking bay markings, and inadequate signage in the neighbourhood, which they perceive as a safety hazard for road users.
• Stakeholders noted the low number of disabled parking bays in Kensington.
• The community expressed concerns about the simultaneous occurrence of numerous construction projects, leading to trades parking for extended durations. This situation hampers access to on-street parking bays.
• Highest number of concerns related to Construction Permit Zones (20 per cent), following by long-term parking (13 per cent), resident priority parking (11 per cent) and safety (10 per cent).
• The community expressed dissatisfaction with the land use in the neighbourhood, residents believe that an excessive amount of public space is allocated to on-street parking, and the high volume of cars in Kensington is not conducive to a vibrant neighbourhood.

The City of Melbourne committed to aligning its engagement and works undertaken in Kensington - with a particular focus on McConnell Street and surrounds - to make it easier for the community to understand proposed and planned works and activity, and how they can have their say.

Examples of what we heard:

• 'I think it is crazy giving up so much public space for the storage of private vehicles. Should be parklets, seating areas, wider footpaths, kerb-separated cycle lanes - anything other than parking!'
• 'Parking by construction workers has been invasive.'
• 'There are to many commuters parking in Bellair Street from the train station right through to Arden Street and in side roads, people are travelling to and parking here because there are no restrictions.'

The consultant report recommendations include:

• Line marking all parking bays, starting in the area around Smith St and Rankins Rd.
• Improve enforcement outcomes through more consistent controls and regular patrols within the neighbourhood. This aims to reduce the number of fines and increase overall compliance.
• Apply consistent time limits in mixed use areas.
• Consider priorities for increase the number of bays. This includes disabled parking, pick-up drop-off (“No Parking”) and the amount of short-term compared with long-term parking.

We are designing changes for Kensington parking which are planned to commence implementation in July-August 2024.

We designed changes for Kensington parking that were rolled out from November 2024.

For more information about the general improvements to parking we made in Kensington, read about our parking improvment works.

You can also learn more about residential parking permits, including permit types and availability.

We won’t set and forget the new conditions. We are committed to regular reviews and engagement with the community.

Feedback from the Kensington check-in will be available in June 2025.

You can have your say any time on parking in your neighbourhood by completing the survey. Survey responses will help us understand what’s important to the community and inform any changes that come from the check-in.