Free parking saga: five options to be scrutinised for city

TOPPING UP: Shoppers can park virtually anywhere in the city centre for as long as they like, provided they feed the meter.

Tauranga city councillor John Robson is looking forward to a "damn good debate" when the controversial issue of free parking in the downtown rears its head in three weeks.

He is part of a group that has been working with staff to produce five options ranging from the status quo to free parking with time limits.

Shoppers can currently park virtually anywhere in the city centre for as long as they like, provided they feed the meter.

One option was to make permanent the special Christmas-January deal of free parking after 3pm.

Cr Robson said free after three was easy to communicate, it filled the afternoon slot when parking demand dropped and bridged the gap so that people could go from late afternoon shopping to enjoying a drink and a meal.

Another option was to only charge for parking during the peak demand period of 10.30am to 2.30pm, although he said there could be problems from people trying to remember two times. It could also involve investment in detectors or higher tech pay and display systems.

A simpler alternative was the status quo except for free parking on Saturdays.

The option with the biggest cost impact was all day free parking, but with time limits to ensure parks turned over. Revenue would drop by $1.5 million a year.

Cr Robson said free parking meant that someone had to pick up the tab, whether it was building owners, levying a special rate or from the general rate.

He said the key things driving the debate were the numbers and who paid.

Rotorua's inner city free parking trial had recently reduced the maximum free parking period from two hours to one hour on the main street and 90 minutes on side streets.

Cr Robson said the limit was pulled back partly because of anecdotal evidence that people were doing "the morning tea shuffle" and shifting their cars to avoid paying.

The council could end up employing more wardens to make sure that people were not taking advantage of free parking, he said.

And if the council encouraged loads more people into town by free parking during times when carparks were already "fullish"' by 1pm, it raised the question of where they would park. The council could end up having to provide more carparks, including a new parking building. "It is not simple."John Cousins