In mid-2022, Dubbo Regional Council installed 150 parking sensors in Church Street, Brisbane Street and Macquarie Street. The sensors are activated when a car parks and then reset when it leaves.

A three month trial detected 570 violations.

A further trial using licence plate recognition cameras for almost six months identified another 2413 parking violations.

But councillor Josh Black has slammed the "stealth" method of detecting parking infringements for "ripping money out of...pockets".

He said there were "a whole range of reasons" someone could have overstayed in their park, such as if they had a medical appointment.

"If you get caught with a bit of chalk on your tyre, fair enough, but I'm not a big fan of the electronic sweep everyone up approach. Sometimes people just forget, and it's a cost of living crisis," he said.

Cr Black does not want the inground sensors and parking cameras to become permanent.

Mayor Mathew Dickerson agreed there were currently cost of living pressures, however, he said businesses in the main street were also doing it tough, highlighting the need for there to be a turnover of vehicles.

"I'd be very disappointed to see anything that encouraged people to break the law, because people who park for too long in one parking space, that's essentially breaking the law," Cr Dickerson said.

"The trials that we've done so far have demonstrated that there are many people who do park outside those regulations and I think those numbers would reduce quite quickly if people started getting fined. It's not fun to fine anybody but the message would need to be very clear if these trials continued or expanded that we are running these processes and make sure you park within the regulations."

The council has not made a decision on whether the trial of the parking sensors and licence plate recognition cameras should be permanent.