Thousands of households are facing an unjustified and arbitrary increase in the encroachment fee charged by the Council. The encroachments allow residents to have a garage or driveway on land that is otherwise of no other practical use. This reduces the number of vehicles parked on public roads.  

We ask that the Council reconsider the increase and instead engage meaningfully with affected households to come up with a more affordable solution. Previous annual increases have been in line with the Consumer Price Index.  

The Council states the current encroachment fees are “considered low” and therefore it intends to increase them by 100%. The rate of increase is stated as being based on the rise in land values, but encroachment land is generally not comparable with residential land. Often residents bear the time and cost burden of maintaining the encroachment land.  

We believe that this increase is especially unreasonable to impose at a time when rents, mortgage rates, council rates, and also the general costs of living are dramatically increasing. 

Please sign our petition if you think a 100% increase is unreasonable.

A submission will be made to the Council by a group of affected residents, mainly from the northern suburbs, if you would like to be involved please contact reserve.submission@yahoo.com.