Around 50 motorists a day are slugged with parking fines across Wollongong, delivering a $1.5 million windfall to the council in the past year alone.
Wollongong City Council's revenue from parking fines was up by around $500,000 on the amount collected in the previous year.
The city's eight rangers issued 13,128 parking infringements in the 12 months to June 30 - the equivalent of 50 fines issued every weekday.
And the cash bonanza shows no signs of abating, with hefty fines failing to discourage motorists from overstaying on-street parking time limits.
Funding for Wollongong CBD's parking woes
Assault laws to protect parking rangers The council's director of planning and environment Andrew Carfield estimated that at any one time within the city centre, around 29 per cent of drivers - or almost one-third - stay longer than signs allow.
"This means those motorists travelling into the city centre for short periods find it difficult to park on the street," Mr Carfield said.
Shellharbour City Council was unable to provide the number of parking infringements issued, but a spokeswoman said about $100,000 was collected from parking fines in the past year.
No figures were available from Kiama council.
Mr Carfield said the parking rules were intended to ensure the safety of pedestrians and motorists, as well as turnover of spaces.
"Wollongong has a number of timed car spots that are designed to generate parking turnover and create more availability," he said.
The council could not project how much its coffers would be bolstered by parking fine revenue over the next year, saying it depended on how many motorists obeyed the rules.
But the number of fines has continued to climb since full-time rangers were employed, rising by more than 500 per cent since 2002-03 when just 2143 fines were issued.
The council on Friday unveiled a plan to ease the shortage of city parking spaces, announcing it would spend $270,000 on creating a new 85-space car park at the corner of Ellen and Keira streets.
Director of infrastructure and works Peter Kofod said the car park, expected to open next year, would supplement the upgrades to the Thomas St and Rawson St car parks.
Meantime, the council will begin advertising next week for tenders to supply and install parking meters early next year.
"The 840 half-hour, one-hour and two-hour spots that will be metered represent less than 10 per cent of the city's total parking supply," Mr Kofod said.
"Any extra revenue generated through parking meters will be spent on improving traffic facilities in the city centre, including new footpaths, cycleways and parking facilities."
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