New parking limits are now in force at Sunshine Marketplace, with up to 20 people being fined every day for overstaying their welcome.
Brimbank council has been enlisted by the shopping centre’s owner, Vicinity Centres, to police the new three and four-hour restrictions.
The council’s city development director Stuart Menzies says Brimbank parking officers patrol the carpark under an agreement with the centre management. He said they began policing the restrictions last month.
“Initially, more than 200 warnings were issued to remind people of the new time restrictions,” he said.
Since then, about 15-20 infringements, on average, have been issued each day in the car park, which has more than 1600 spaces.
“That is about one per cent of the spaces available,” Mr Menzies said. “These include infringements for people illegally parking in disabled car parking spaces and loading zones.”
Bernadette Marantelli, who copped a $78 parking fine last Tuesday for parking “longer than indicated”, says there aren’t any signs warning people of the new time restrictions.
“There’s no signage there at all,” said the Clarkefield resident, who occasionally comes to Sunshine for work. But a Sunshine Marketplace spokeswoman says new signs have been erected at each carpark entrance and along each aisle.
“We let our customers know about the upcoming changes through signage in the car park and in our centres,” she said.
“Our customers and retailers are our priority and we understand that the availability and ease of parking is an important issue … we have received a number of complaints about an increase in demand for these spaces by drivers not visiting the centre.”
