From: the Rockhampton Morning Bulletin
After manually timing families, the elderly, and the sick, going back and forth from the Rockhampton Airport terminal to their cars, Rockhampton Councillor Neil Fisher has finally succeeded in his campaign to lengthen the airport's car parking 'grace period'.
The chairman of council's Business Enterprise Committee fought for it to be changed to 30 minutes, but council officers advised council would lose $63,000 in revenue in one year alone. They have finally agreed to change the time to 20 minutes.
About 72% of motorists have been able to leave the car park within the original 15 minutes, but Cr Fisher said it was a battle for many people to make that time and they were forced to pay at least $2. Cr Fisher said he had experienced first-hand how difficult it was to get to the terminal and back to the car in time with young children and strollers in tow.
He said he had also received complaints from users of the car park who were either ill or elderly and had difficulty making the free parking time limit.
A survey of users found most people wanted free parking increased by a few minutes in line with Brisbane Airport. Users also complained the car park was not designed for large four-wheel drive mining vehicles.
***Incidentally, it should also be noted that for plane spotters wanting to go to Rockhampton Airport at night to watch or photograph the upcoming late night heavy jet arrivals, the carpark gates get locked most nights around 11pm-12midnight. Recently, one spotter found this out first hand!!
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