As a working Mum time and money are really important to balancing work and life. I work in the city and live in the outer-suburbs so I park 'n ride because of the ridiculous cost of city parking and the gridlock of the Mitchell Freeway.
There's a plan to sack Parking Attendants and have their jobs privatised. I don't think privatisation adds up. I fear pretty soon we'll all be paying more for parking fees and more costly fines.
I remember well getting a $60 parking ticket at my local train station and I wasn't too happy about it but I hadn't done the right thing. And parking attendants are just doing their job.
But this news about parking attendants made me stop and think.
In that recent media report, a PTA spokesperson said: "It is important to note no final decision has been made about the future of the staff.” So a decision hasn't been made, we can stop this privatisation.
At Joondalup station, up until a year ago, it was a PTA "park 'n ride" but then it got taken over by another provider. Immediately the parking fees went up.
Do you remember when parking fees at train stations were introduced? They started at $2 a day. But when parking at the new children's hospital was privatised Wilson Parking raised fees immediately.
So I've sponsored an online petition here, please sign and share.
We need to encourage more people to use public transport. But if the cost of parking at train stations becomes expensive, more people are going to clog our freeways to get to the city.
It we turn "Park and Ride" into "Park and Pay More", our traffic congestion will just get worse.
Make sure you sign and share my online petition here. We can save these jobs from privatisation and protect against further fee and fine increases.
Denise Mercer