Unsurprisingly, the report highlighted that Bellingen is worst placed among the three townships in terms of high utilisation of parking spots, people overstaying time limits, and general dissatisfaction with the current state of affairs.

Dorrigo has 327 parking spots, including three marked for disabled parking; Urunga has 393 (nine marked disabled) and Bellingen has 469 (nine marked disabled).

An online community survey that ran from May 18 to June 6 found 85 per cent of respondents from Dorrigo and Urunga were satisfied with the parking arrangements in their town.

However, the number of people who completed the survey was relatively small – just 39 in Dorrigo and 54 in Urunga.

In Bellingen, 130 people responded to the survey and 57 per cent were dissatisfied with their parking experiences, a figure the report said was “concerning”.

Unlike Dorrigo and Urunga, which are described as having “ample parking provision”, Bellingen recorded 100 per cent occupancy in multiple areas on both the days monitored (Saturday May 12 and Tuesday May 15).

One respondent commented, “Parking during seasonal holidays/festivals is extremely difficult and poorly managed in existing parking areas. This leaves residents to form their own creative parking solutions  that hamper others from accessing potential spaces.”

Other respondents noted poor pavement surfaces and line marking, both on-street and off-street, and mentioned safety concerns around sight lines due to tall vegetation on the Hyde St crossing.

Proposed actions specific to Bellingen included liaising with IGA to improve the pavement surface in the off-street parking area; improving the pavement surface on Church St north; installing parking time restrictions of 4P in William St and formalising on-street parking; providing signage to improve awareness of parking behind the Post Office; and investigating opportunities for increasing the parking supply via a multi-level structure along Creek Lane.

The report noted that council does not currently enforce the parking time limits in any of the towns and suggested it start doing so (after a community education campaign).

However, in Dorrigo, it recommended that parking time restrictions signs be removed, apart from outside the PO, as they were unnecessary.

It also said all three towns were very walkable, but additional footpaths and connections would encourage more residents to walk to town, and that there was an adequate number of disabled parking spots relative to the level of demand in each town.

The Draft Bellingen Shire Council Parking Strategy report will be placed on public exhibition for at least a month and can also be found in the agenda document for the September 26 council meeting (pp.41-83) https://www.bellingen.nsw.gov.au/sites/bellingen/files/public/AGENDA%20-%20ORDINARY%20MEETING%20OF%20COUNCIL%20-%2026%20SEPTEMBER%202018.pdf