Acting chief executive Martin Mileham said trial will determine if there's a demand for this type of service. Credit:Today Tonight "That corner, of Pier, Murray and Wellington Streets, is notorious for drug users and other characters who hang out there all the time," she told WAtoday. "These 28 pink bays don't address drug users who go to the stairwells, or the people coming and trying to poke around your handbag when you are trying to pay at the pay machine. "At 7am, those bays are full of tradies, because they are the ones who get there early - if you look today, it's full of utes. I get in about 8.30am and have to park on the fifth floor and there is no security or lighting for people there late at night. "The car park is mostly unmanned during the day and there are kids skating up and down the floors, who know which floors to go on so no one will see them. The security guard I tried to report them to sits in his car and plays Angry Birds on his phone and does a lap once an hour or so.

"Anyone spending any time in that car park will know that nothing they've done here helps. Not to mention the inherent sexism of painting it pink." National Council of Women president Marion Ward said she was not offended by the pink, the colour also used for breast cancer charities. "Women are prone to be attacked in the quieter and darker places of the city and this could make women feel much safer," she said.

"Anything that keeps women safer, I am all for it." "If we are talking about inequality we should talk about how more women are abused." on Wednesday morning, Radio 6PR news director Lisa Barnes visited the car park. "A couple of tradies have just pulled up ... they were very worried. They asked me if they should actually move their cars. I reassured them they were not going to get fined," she said. "They park here because it is close to the ground and they have to move their tools around. They suggested we need some tradie bays.

"If the issue is security, why don't we just make the whole car park secure? "As one woman driver pointed out to me when she was parking her car, she actually feels like it might make us a little bit more unsafe because you're just directing the undesirables straight towards where the women are." Diversity Network director Kristie Young agreed. "If you're a psycho, you might think, 'vulnerable people might park there'," she said.

"Common sense would say if you're going out late at night you should park in a relatively safe spot. "Or you can walk with a friend. "But males and females are both at risk. "The elderly may need [bays close to entries] if they can't walk as fast – they're not disabled but they may need to be close to the entrance. There is a whole myriad of people." Online outrage has greeted similar moves in countries including South Korea, Germany and China, where shopping centres reportedly went even further with extra-wide spaces hazard bumpers for those terrible female drivers, female parking attendants and walls prettily painted with birds and flowers.

The City confirmed costs fell under Perth's car park maintenance budget, but did not confirm what the costs were. The three-month trial begins next week. Feedback from the public will determine whether it continues. Follow WAtoday on Twitter