On Monday, a software glitch caused the parking meters in Wollongong streets to fail. People who put in money found that the machines declined to deliver a ticket to place on view through the windscreen of their cars. Council " spin doctors " tried to turn this into an advantage by declaring that motorists were enjoying a " free parking day ".
That was absolutely not so. These bandit machines cheerfully accepted money - but failed to deliver the reward that motorists were paying for - and the council cheerfully collected and banked the money that people paid for no service - and the rangers were cheerfully still booking those who overstayed the time limits that applied.
It seems that council made no attempt to place an " Out of service " hood over each meter management console, which is the usual method of alerting users to a meter malfunction. As a result, many people who made a visit to several parts of the CBD probably put money in different parking meters because they thought the problem was confined to just one console. It would be interesting to know just how much money was spent trying to do what is legally required to park in this city.
It is also interesting to ask exactly what council did to alert the public to this malfunction. Did council issue a news alert to local radio and TV ?
It seems that the council owes Wollongong motorists a day of free parking for the money wasted when machines gobbled their offerings because of a fault. It would be nice if they declared next Monday a free day in lieu - and put an " Out of service " cover on the consoles to deliver that message.
That won't happen, of course. Money collected by councils and all other forms of administration is a one way flow. When that flow is interrupted, all those entities are only concerned if the money stream going in their direction stops. If it is the other way around - and the public is disadvantaged, they don't want to know about that.
That is the job of the " spin doctors " !
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