Domain ringed by pay-for-parking

Free parking will become scarce near Auckland City Hospital as pay-and-display machines start sprouting up this week between Grafton and Newmarket.

City council contractors will spend several weeks from today installing machines for 550 to 600 parking spaces along streets on the southern and eastern borders of Auckland Domain and near the hospital around Park, Grafton and Carlton Gore roads.

Maximum parking times will range from one to three hours between 8am and 6pm each weekday. Drivers will be charged $2 an hour, half the tariff for the central business district.

The Domain will remain exempt from parking charges for the moment, after an Auckland City Council proposal last year to install 200 pay-and-display machines inside its boundaries ran into public flak.

This is despite the council's concern over pressure the centralisation of medical services at Auckland City Hospital is putting on the Domain as vehicle owners regularly exceed time limits for free parking.

The removal of free on-site parking for hospital staff and visitors has added to the pinch, both in the Domain and neighbouring streets, as has the expansion of attractions at the Auckland Museum.

Council transport and urban linkages committee chairman Richard Simpson acknowledged that parking machines on surrounding streets could put even more pressure on space in the Domain.

But he believed they would give people better access to the Domain by discouraging commuters from monopolising surrounding streets for hours, thus making it easier for visitors to find parking spaces within walking distance of it.

Mr Simpson said the idea of machines in the Domain would remain under review and council officers would be encouraged to explore ways of encouraging more people to get there on foot or by public transport.