A new parking scheme will be rolled out from 24 June in Newtown and Berhampore to better manage existing and future parking pressures in these busy growing suburbs.

Changes will happen in Newtown west (Rintoul Street side) and Berhampore first, and in Newtown east (the hospital side) from mid-2025. In all three areas, following community feedback, fewer time-restricted car parks than proposed will be installed initially.

The scheme was approved in principle late last year by Kōrau Tūāpapa, Wellington City Council’s Environment and Infrastructure Committee after a first round of consultation in October.

The Council’s Koata Hātepe Regulatory Processes Committee met this week to make final decisions and changes following a second round of community consultation in February this year.

The Committee Chair, Councillor Sarah Free, says significant changes have been made to the planned parking scheme after each round of consultation.

Most recently – and in response to the varied views and concerns raised – it has been decided to roll the scheme out more gradually.

“There will also be more checks along the way to help ensure we are getting the pace of change, and balance right for residents who want to be able to park near to where they live, and also for hospital staff and other people who work in the area and come by car,” Cr Free says.

“In future, if it’s needed, we can add more of the time-restricted parking we’ve approved today to make things easier for residents with permits, and visitors. But initially, we’re only planning to install about half.”

Cr Free says introducing a parking scheme in the wider Newtown area is necessary because parking has been under pressure for years and there have been repeated community calls for action to address this.

“This situation will only get worse if we don’t have measures in place and a way to manage parking more fairly. These are busy, growing neighbourhoods where more and more people are living, and the number of people working at Wellington Regional Hospital is also rising,” she says.

The more gradual roll-out will give hospital staff who currently rely on on-street parking more time to consider alternatives. Wellington Regional Hospital will also have more time to put alternative travel measures in place and make progress on proposals to have more parking on the hospital campus.

In response to feedback from people who work at the hospital and others who were concerned about hospital staff, the Council has been investigating the legality and possibility of dedicating about 50 on-street parking spaces in the vicinity of Mein Street for hospital staff.

The hospital is interested in this proposal. Once it is fine-tuned, it will be subject to a traffic resolution consultation process later this year. This will give everyone another opportunity to comment on this proposal.

If approved, it’s anticipated this would be introduced from mid-2025 and reviewed after six months.

Newtown west and Berhampore parking changes 

New signs will begin to go up in Newtown west (the Rintoul Street side) and in Berhampore. These will remain covered until the scheme starts on 24 June this year.

Initially:

· in Newtown west, about 55 percent of the on-street parking will continue to have no restrictions

· in Berhampore, about 80 percent of the on-street parking will continue to have no restrictions.

The remaining parking - about 460 parking spaces in Newtown west and 300 in Berhampore - will be marked P180, Monday to Friday, 8am-8pm (except authorised vehicles).

During the times the restrictions apply, anyone will be able to park in these parking spaces for up to three hours at no charge.

It will be possible to park for longer in a P180 space with a resident parking permit or visitor day pass.

Households in these areas will be able to apply for an allocation of free visitor day passes. Households with off-street parking can get 25 a year. Households with no off-street parking can get 50.

Households in these areas will also have the option of applying for a resident permit if they would like the flexibility of being able to park in P180 spaces for longer than three hours. These cost $195 a year, about 54 cents a day. To make things easier, there will be options to pay in full or instalments.

It will be possible to apply for resident permits and visitor passes on the Council’s website from 6 May. Applications will need to be in by 5pm on 6 June to be considered in the first annual permit allocation round.

These suburbs will be the first in the city to have a parking plan developed in line with the city’s Parking Policy approved in 2020.

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