Palmerston North City Council hits pause on increase in paid parking hours

Churches were among the many groups and motorists who expressed concern at the council decision to introduce paid parking on Sundays. Photo / Judith Lacy

Palmerston North mayor Grant Smith says the council got the decision and process to significantly extend paid parking hours "slightly wrong".

He made the comment at last week's council meeting when it decided to press pause and ask the public for feedback on its earlier decision.

Late-night paid parking during the peak demand evenings of Thursday, Friday and Saturday until 9pm was to have started on July 1.

However, a 5624-signatory petition and feedback from organisations such as the Manawatū Chamber of Commerce prompted the mayor to bring a notice of motion to the July 7 meeting proposing council revoke its earlier decision.

Saturday's paid parking hours were to be extended to 9am to 9pm, and paid parking introduced on Sundays from 9am-3pm.

The council has yet to announce when the feedback period opens.

Parking costs will still increase to $1.70 an hour, an increase of 20 cents.

"This will require us to re-programme the parking meters," chief financial officer Stuart McKinnon says. "We will announce shortly what date the fee increase will come into effect."

At the meeting, Smith said with the level of feeling that came through about the increased hours, not only in the petition but also emails and calls, he thought the council had got the change "slightly wrong", including the process.

"There's no harm in admitting that it has been done wrong."

It was evident the council had passed something that had upset thousands of its residents, Smith said.

"This is about the people rather than the process. It's caught me by surprise and I admit that as mayor and I know it has caught some of you as councillors by surprise."

The council agreed to ask the chief executive to undertake "stakeholder engagement" on the on-street parking time changes and report back to the September council meeting.

Councillor Susan Baty, who chaired the March Finance and Audit Committee meeting at which the parking changes were recommended, said she was "very, very surprised" there was no questions asked at that meeting.

Baty said members of the public had approached her saying staff had done things councillors did not know about.

"We as councillors passed this, the staff make the recommendations from a workshop, so I do not want staff hung out to dry for this."