The payment is for car parking and should be ring fenced from other funds. Council also has to keep a register of the section 94 contributions received. 

Seven owners of retail shops and offices in Merimbula recently wrote to council to find out what had happened to car parking contributions they and others had paid since 1966 to Imlay and Bega Valley Shire Councils.

Now the Merimbula Chamber of Commerce has weighed into the discussion.

The chamber’s urban planning spokesman, Mitchell Nadin, said the business community had "legitimate questions" for council to answer regarding car parking funds. 

However, Mr Nadin said that council had indicated it was willing to work with land owners regarding historical records of all car-parking related transactions. 

"The chamber fully supports Merimbula business owners seeking transparency of car parking funds for Merimbula. We're eager to hear council's response and look forward to working with all interested parties seeking to fix Merimbula's comprehensive parking problems," Mr Nadin said. 

Business owner, Robert Green said owners had been paying council to provide car parking since at least 1970, but apart from the Palmer car park and the Alice Street car park, both of which were provided in the 1980s, the council had not added any more spaces, even though council had continued to receive money. 

“Council said last week that car spaces had been added to Merimbula since 2009 but that is putting a spin on it.

“Council’s obligation to its commercial ratepayers is to provide car parking in the shopping centre, so for the council to say that it has added extra car parking around the lake simply misleads the public. 

“We asked the council nine questions and we are still waiting on a straightforward reply to those questions,” Mr Green said.