3 months ago
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A new parking app is set to be rolled out across Brisbane, a year after the CellOPark fiasco caused confusion for commuters across the city.
PayStay will join CellOPark as a second parking option from March 2026, in a move that was celebrated by the Schrinner council at City Hall on Tuesday afternoon.
“We think that more choice is always a good thing,” acting infrastructure committee chair Danita Parry said.
A parking metre in the Brisbane CBD.Credit: William Davis
“It also means less risk if there’s a temporary outage or any other unforeseen event.”
The Labor opposition said the move would not reduce logistical challenges across the city.
“This is a band-aid attempt from a … council constantly playing catch-up,” leader Jared Cassidy said in a statement on Wednesday morning.
“Council only bothered to look for a market competitor after last year’s business stoush between CellOPark and the local agent.
“A new parking app won’t give people any confidence to swap the car for public transport.”
PayStay is already used at Griffith University campuses and in multiple council areas in New South Wales.
Pay-by-app parking now accounts for more than half the 4.5 million annual parking transactions across Brisbane.
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Parry said the shift would benefit all road users, and reduce costs for ratepayers.
“People that use pay by app parking do it because it’s easy … they also know they can simply hit stop on their phones when they’re done and never overpay for parking,” she told colleagues.
“I, for one, am glad that the guessing game of how long it will take for my foils to develop while I sit in the hairdresser’s chair has been confined to history.”
She confirmed PayStay had won a competitive tender put out by Brisbane City Council.
In December last year motorists received contradictory emails about CelloOPark’s planned changeover to a new app called OPark.
The first email told users their CellOPark accounts would be transferred to the new app.
Twenty-four hours later, another email claimed the first was sent “by the local representative in breach of his obligations” and that there was no connection between the two brands.
Earlier this year, this masthead revealed AI was increasingly being used across the city to issue parking fines.
About 200,000 parking infringements were issued last financial year.
Staying in a spot longer than allowed, parking in a no-stopping area and stopping in a bus zone were among the most common offences.
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