Inner West Mayor Darcy Byrne has announced that from today main street parking meters in Leichhardt, Rozelle and Balmain shopping strips will be turned off after 7pm.

It is hoped the move will revitalise main streets, giving residents and visitors an incentive to engage with local businesses in the region.

“Local businesses have been telling me for a long time now that there needed to be a practical incentive for local residents and visitors to come back to our main streets,” Mr Darcy told Michael McLaren.

“This is an important first step. We want to make it more attractive for people to come and spend money.”

The move was also motivated by the need to reinstall a vibrant local community sentiment in the area.

“We’ve been losing that.  There’s been more empty shop fronts then in the past.  We’ve got to take action if we want to combat the effect of megamalls, where dozens of economic development officers are employed with the objective of sucking all of the economic activity out of the main streets and into their doors.”

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