Central Coast residents and visitors are set to spend less time stuck in traffic with an Australian Government technology grant for 450 ‘smart parking’ sensors.

Central Coast Council’s Precinct Parking & Traffic Solution has been announced as one of 52 successful projects, totalling $28.5million under Round One of the Australian Government’s inaugural Smart Cities and Suburbs Program.

Under the Program, funding will flow to communities across Australia, with 40% of successful projects located in regional areas. 

Central Coast Council will receive $114,000 from the Australian Government to install 200 parking sensors in the Terrigal CBD and 250 sensors in the Gosford CBD, allowing drivers to link to available parking information via apps.

Assistant Minister for Cities and Digital Transformation Angus Taylor joined with Member for Robertson, Lucy Wicks, on Friday to welcome the funding coming to the Central Coast.

“This is about helping reduce heavy traffic congestion in the heart of Terrigal and Gosford,” Assistant Minister Taylor said.

“The Smart Cities and Suburbs Program wants to support clever ideas that fix local problems, and that can be replicated in other places, particularly in the outer suburbs of our cities and the regions.

“Up to 30% of traffic congestion in the city centres on the Central Coast is because of people looking for carparks. We can do better than this.”

Mrs Wicks commended the Central Coast Council for their innovative proposal.

“Thousands of people from the Central Coast commute to Sydney or Newcastle every day, and so finding a parking space at Gosford in particular can be a daily challenge and frustration. Today’s news is shaping up as a major breakthrough,” Mrs Wicks said.

“I’m also pleased to see Terrigal included in Council’s proposal. This will help solve the parking difficulties for both locals and visitors in one of our most beautiful - and busiest - regions.

“As well as reducing congestion, this project will help reduce air pollution, improve road safety and improve accessibility to local businesses.”

In addition to the Australian Government’s $113,657 contribution, the Central Coast Council and Reino International Pty Ltd will together contribute $163,658.

Council Director Environment and Planning, Scott Cox, said that Council was looking for innovative solutions to the parking challenges in the Gosford and Terrigal CBDs, which had been made possible with the funding from the Federal Government.

“Adequate and available parking is key to activating our town centres and we believe these innovative parking sensors will go a long way to alleviating the frustration of finding a parking spot,” Mr Cox said. 

“Similar sensors are already working well at The Entrance and thanks to this funding, visitors to the Gosford and Terrigal CBDs can benefit too by getting real-time information about the availability of parking.

“Council is committed to consulting with our community and the business sector to enhance the effectiveness of these sensors for all users.”

Community consultation on the placement and roll out of the sensors will get underway in early 2018. 

The $50 million Smart Cities and Suburbs Program is a key element of the Government’s Smart Cities Plan. More information on the Program and the Smart Cities Plan is available at https://cities.dpmc.gov.au/.

Round Two of the $50 million Smart Cities and Suburbs Program is expected to open in the first half of 2018.