We are continuously seeking feedback in our municipality and specific neighbourhood engagement periods are just one element of our feedback collection. The following feedback relates to one specific engagement period, and we won’t set and forget the new conditions once works are complete; we'll give the community time to adjust and then review the functionality and performance of those changes.

You can have your say any time on parking in your neighbourhood by completing the survey. The next review of your neighbourhood will use this data to inform future changes.

In 2023, the City of Melbourne introduced a Kerbside Parking Strategy 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.

A summary was provided to the public along with a survey seeking feedback on the following:

• 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 West Melbourne, the cycle of regular reviews began with a round of engagement between March and April 2024. The engagement process included two workshops (attended by 14), stakeholder interviews and 38 survey responses.

You can still have your say on West Melbourne parking via our survey.

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

We heard from residents, state projects, businesses and workers across East Melbourne.

• 14 residents attended two workshop sessions.
• 38 people submitted survey responses.
• 12 managed cases.

We had low numbers of responses regarding West Melbourne during this engagement. As such we will be meeting with the community consistently throughout delivery and review as well as reaching out to key businesses and stakeholders to get feedback.

Our survey is always on to support further feedback for West Melbourne as we progress.

The engagement activities highlighted some key parking feedback including;

• No space during large events and because of unrestricted parking bays.
• A range of parking uses across the neighbourhood including short term (1P or pick up/drop off) and long term (3P or P) parking needs.
• High parking demand in the evening from 5pm.

Examples of what we heard:

• 'Parking is readily available except during events at marvel stadium and festival hall.'
• 'Batman St is a very wide street. I would prefer if some of it was converted was converted to green space to counter the Urban Heat Island effect and provide safe cycling and a better environment outside St James Cathedral.'
• 'Developers should be required to provide car spaces for carshare services, visitor parking in addition to onsite resident parking.'

Findings:

• A lot of parking in West Melbourne is uncontrolled, very different from neighbouring CBD and Docklands.
• Parking in Jeffcott and Batman Street needs to be investigated as a distinct area as it borders CBD and has a range of stakeholders with parking needs including school, church, residents, workers and visitors.
• Parking needs to be assessed in line with other projects in the area including Hawke Street, train station and development and Queen Victoria Markets.

Recommendations have been made to council that include:

• Consistent controls across the neighbourhood.
• A range of 1P, 3P and P parking depending on area.
• Key areas to be reviewed including train station precinct and CBD boundary.
• Meter network in West Melbourne investigated and assessed for busy times and areas including train station and during events in precinct.
• Parking needs to be more consistent; recommended to consolidate 1P metered, 2P metered and 3P metered into 3P metered only. This allows more flexibility across West Melbourne parking.

Council will assess these recommendations and start staging out design for changes to West Melbourne parking which will begin in 2025.

We won’t set and forget the new conditions once works are complete; we'll give the community time to adjust and then review the functionality and performance of the changes. We will undertake a comprehensive review of how these changes are functioning in late 2025.

For more information on changes in your street go to Parking improvement works.