City of Perth Lord Mayor Basil Zempilas has revealed his request for parking levy relief “has not been viewed favourably” by the WA Government.

The Lord Mayor told Perth LIVE he met with Premier Mark McGowan and Transport Minister Rita Saffioti last week, to issue a plea on behalf of landlords, for their car bays – with little luck.

“That’s disappointing, on behalf of our business owners and property owners in our city, who have commercial residential bays,” Zempilas told Oliver Peterson.

“We have… also written to the Auditor-General to request an audit of the Perth parking levy, and I am meeting with the Auditor-General in the not too distant future, and I hope that process will soon be underway.

“We don’t give up; we won’t give in. We know it is a huge inconvenience and impediment to many of our business owners and our property owners.”

It comes as new research from the Property Council of Australia shows Perth’s CBD is essentially in a ‘shadow lockdown’ – with the office occupancy index was 55% in February, compared to pre-covid levels.

“In actual fact, Perth has the highest occupancy rate of all the capital cities, as at the end of February,” Zempilas said.

“But I do accept that we are, now, into that period that I’ve always described as the inevitable ‘it’s going to get worse before it gets better’.

“So we will see that occupancy rate diminish even further, I believe, before we start to bounce back.”