parking petition to Horsham Rural City Council

This petition ideally seeks to achieve the removal of parking meters, or if this is not possible, their permanent disuse from the entire municipality of Horsham Rural City Council.
We want parking meter fees set aside to make parking in the municipality more accessible. The benefit of encouraging people to spend more time in the CBD supporting local business cannot be overstated.
Until recently, there were 361 parking meters servicing a smaller area than the current 60 parking meters that have replaced them. As a direct result of that action, there are now significantly increased distances involved that people must navigate before they are able to use a parking meter.
Local people are now actively avoiding parking meters, and business is suffering.
The current parking meters have issues that should have been noted and resolved prior to installation especially with our ageing population in mind.
These include:
Ease of access. People who are not tall have difficulty in reading the display on the meter. This also applies to people who use wheelchairs and can’t find a disabled carpark. Our elderly who are not at all familiar with technology, and who often have mobility issues, which often also means they are a little slower than most people, and also have eyesight issues. In addition, there are people who don’t remember their number plate. The pain, difficulty and exhaustion involved in making that trip 3 more times – and that’s only if they are able to remember the plate number – can be great. Many try, but fail to navigate the parking meter instructions – often under pressure, because others are also needing to use it.
The digital readouts and instructions are not at all user friendly. In addition, the meters process so slowly, that people have walked away, believing the meter to be non-operational. People have almost navigated the long winded process, including inserting coins, and then walked away because they believed the meter to be broken. They were unaware that they needed to press yet another button after the coins were lodged.
The compliance issues associated with meters do not allow a grace period. As an example, a person uses a parking bay and leaves to walk up the street to pay for the meter. In the time the person is away they get booked.
In another instance, the app. failed to allow a user to stop the app. and to disconnect the meter.. The result was a maximum 2-hour parking fee. Will app. users have bank charges applied to funds being withdrawn from their bank accounts? Will users then also have bank fees added when the small refunded amounts go into their bank accounts? This is not something that has been addressed by Council.
There is definitely no net community benefit to keeping and using these parking meters please remove them.