Mayor Liz Innes brought a last-minute motion to the last council meeting of the year, on December 11.

“I seek support to opt in to reduced fines, from $112 to $80, in line with changes made to NSW Government regulations,” she said.

Councils that opt in to by January can educe the fines from March 1, 2019. The move will reduce the council’s income by $10,000 to $50,000 per year.

The change will not reduce fines for illegally parking in a disabled parking space.

Councillors Lindsay Brown and Anthony Mayne voted against the change.

“We’re being asked to vote on something being introduced by a state government coming into an election, that could potentially cost the community $50,000,” Cr Mayne said.

Cr Lindsay Brown said he did not believe an $80 fine would deter people from parking illegally.

“I’m seeing it rewarding bad behaviour,” he said.

“My view is, if you don’t park illegally, you don’t pay the fine.

“The $10,000-$50,000 has to come from somewhere – where does it come from?”

Cr Constable disagreed.

“These fines are designed to be deterrents – if they had a 100 per cent success rate, we wouldn’t issue any,” he said.

“To a pensioner, $80 is a significant whack, it’s still a sufficient deterrent.”

Councillor Jack Tait said he supported reduced fines.

“There are massive state-by-state variations,” he said.

“Parking fine variances for the same offence are up to $280 from state to state – if the NSW Government is trying to bring the amount into line, I’ll support it, but if you’re parked illegally, cop it.”

Councillor Patrick McGinlay asked if the council was able to “pick and choose” which fines were reduced. Director of planning Lindsay Usher said “no”.