NEWS RELEASE
3 December 2009

Council to increase cost of parking permits

Wellington City Council plans to increase the cost of its parking permits, following a review of its residents’ parking and coupon parking schemes.

Councillors at today’s Strategy and Policy Committee meeting agreed to increase the cost of a residents’ parking permit from $90 a year to $115 and coupon exemption permit from $50 a year to $65. The price of coupon parking will also increase from $5 per day to $7.50, while monthly coupon parking will increase from $80 to $120 per month. The changes will be advertised and people will get an opportunity to comment on the changes. If approved by the Council, the changes will come into effect from 1 July 2010.

The Council’s Transport Portfolio Leader, Mayor Kerry Prendergast, says the current parking prices are too low. “At the moment it only costs 25 cents a day to park your car using a residents’ parking permit. We had strong support from the public during our review of the parking schemes to increase the cost of parking permits.”

The review of the parking schemes found they are working well but some changes are needed to ensure they reflect the Council’s Parking Policy priorities and can cater for future growth.

The Council received 427 submissions on recommended changes to the scheme, with the majority (56-78 percent) agreeing to the following:
• increasing the price of residents’ parking, coupon exemption, and daily and monthly parking coupons
• increasing the number of residents-only parks in existing permit areas as required
• establishing Council guidelines to evaluate requests for new or extended residents’ parking areas
• restricting residents’ parking to properties in residential zones
• reducing the allowance of residents’ permits from two per multi-unit dwelling to one.

Mayor Prendergast says the changes are about rebalancing the demand for residents’ parking with commuter parking. Requests from residents for new residents’ parking will be considered alongside the need to maintain enough short-stay parking and residents will need to show there is demand for parking and that they have support from other residents on the street.

People living in multi-unit dwellings can apply for an unlimited number of coupon exemption permits and the eligibility maps for residents’ parking will be reviewed so that only residential-zoned properties are eligible for parking permits. This change will affect about 287 permit holders who are currently eligible, however existing permits will continue to be eligible.

ENDS

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