Letters to editor: Parking system right but tweaks needed

Residents and Ratepayers secretary Paddi Hodgkiss with Rotorua's controversial i-Park system. Photo / File

There has been much criticism of the parking system in Rotorua's CBD.

I agree that it is far from perfect, with the main problems being the poorly designed and difficult parking terminals and the annoying fixed levy on credit card payments. However, the PrestoPark phone app provides a good alternative, and I recommend it to anyone wanting to avoid the physical terminals.

A few years ago, it was clear that the old parking meters had reached the end of their life, and were not suitable as we move to an increasingly cashless society.

Change was needed. What critics fail to do is to say what they would have done at that time.

The RDRR team has repeatedly advocated free CBD parking with time limits to ensure turnover. I do not agree. While the current system is costly to run, it has resulted in a net revenue of some $300,000. A free system would be expensive.

To avoid the problem of CBD workers monopolising parking spaces, it would need a rigid enforcement system. My uneducated guess is that this would cost several hundred thousand dollars to staff and administer.

Combined with the loss of current revenue, the result would be a large net cost to ratepayers. Unless this was met by a levy on CBD businesses, it would fall on all ratepayers.

This would mean that those who never or seldom drive to the CBD would be subsidising the regular users.

I believe that the current user-pays system is right in principle, but some practical
improvements and tweaks are still needed.

Keith Garratt
Rotorua

Law and order deteriorating

We are all being encouraged by the current government to be more inclusive caring citizens.

That being so, law and order in New Zealand appears to be significantly deteriorating over recent times, putting law-abiding citizens at risk.

Over the last three months, violence involving firearms has been numerous. This after tightening the gun laws and assurances that an improvement would become evident.

Waikeria Prison six-day debacle. Every day this situation was allowed to continue only strengthened the lawbreakers' resolve of themselves, other prisoners and future prisoners.

2020 holiday period road deaths up almost three times that on the previous year. Some clearly demonstrating disregard for the law and also the need for increased policing of our roads as well as some required stronger penalties.

A further downward trend of the above can be arrested quite readily by the current government now that they have a clear mandate to do so.

Leigh Neilson
Tauranga

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