Simon Nixon: Free parking nice but someone must foot bill

Simon Nixon

The era of free parking in the Hastings CBD is over and there have been many letters and text messages protesting the move.

Of course free parking to one person means someone else is footing the bill.

The experiment started two years ago following a symposium in August 2015 when the CBD was in serious decline, a situation many blamed on the HDC decision to sell Nelson Park and allow the site to be developed into the Mega Mall. At the symposium the Hastings City Business Association suggested free CBD parking would attract shoppers back into the CBD.

On September 24 the council opted for a four month trial, from November 2015 to February 2016, funded to the tune of $330,000 from the 2014/15 rating surplus even though a similar 2013 trial in Rotorua and trialling of a more complicated system in Nelson suggested disappointing results were likely.

Whilst a 13.4 per cent annual lift in retail sales followed the trial, the increase was even more pronounced for both those retailers operating after normal hours and those located outside of the CBD (presumably Mega Mall and The Plaza), suggesting the increase was due more to a general lift in the economy.

On February 18, 2016 the council extended the trial to June 30, 2016 but reintroduced paid parking for the pay and display areas. An annual plan consultation process was established to determine the communities' preferences. Whilst CBD businesses and shoppers, not unexpectedly, were in favour of "free parking", tear-off forms sent to each household with the Annual Plan statement showed 80 per cent preferred meters whilst a Citizens Panel favoured meters by 68 per cent.

The only decision then made by councillors was a further extension of free parking to December 2016 (perhaps helped by the proximity of elections) when the decision was made for a fourth trial to 30 June 2017 plus more community consultation.

This last round of consultation revealed a similar 68 per cent support for a return to meters rather than a $22 annual increase in rates.

For various reasons adding parking costs to rates is inequitable. Many retailers including big boxes and supermarkets provide their own customer parking and pay council rates on those parks. Some people don't own cars, whilst rural residents especially those north of Napier seldom if ever come into the Hastings CBD. Additionally out of town shoppers would have effectively been subsidised by locals.

At $1 an hour for meters or 50 cents an hour for "pay and display" Hastings must have the cheapest parking in the country. The lack of technology solutions for payment will be remedied with the introduction of the "Park Mate" mobile phone payment system, though there is a small additional user cost.

Though the average increase in urban rates in the coming year is only 1.4 per cent this does not tell the full story.

Valuation changes mean Havelock North and Hastings property owners will experience significantly larger percentage increases. Had the $22 annual parking charge been applied, Hastings rates would have increased by around 1 per cent more on average and Flaxmere ratepayers by an even higher percentage.

The cost of the trials is put at $805,000 paid from rates surpluses and parking reserves. These funds might have been better employed providing more off street parking.

Annual revenues from parking meters and "Pay and Display" parks total nearly $500,000 a year. Had retailers and other CBD businesses been serious about the benefits of "free parking" they could have offered to contribute directly.

After all whilst increasing valuations in Hastings and Havelock North will result in an increased share of rates falling on residential areas, CBD property owners will be better off because of the reduction in values.

Clearly the CBD is experiencing a renascence but the reason as recently explained by one property owner is the influx of new people into Hawke's Bay. It was good whilst it lasted but there is no such thing as a free meal.

Simon Nixon is the acting Deputy Mayor of Hastings. Views expressed here are the writer's opinion and not the newspaper's. Email: editor@hbtoday.co.nz