Retailers in downtown Tauranga are annoyed and frustrated that customers will still have to pay for parking after the council rejected a proposal last week which would have made it free.
The proposal involved funding the $2.7 million required to make it possible by ratepayers and the current situation will prevailuntil at least July next year.
Retailers spoken to by the Bay News this week say it is an eternal struggle to try to compete with other shopping centres that have free parking and lots of it.
Supre assistant manager Gypsea Harrison, says it is an uneven playing field.
"I think it's really unfair.
"Every other shopping complex has free parking - we're the only people that you actually have to pay to park outside."
Gypsea says she constantly sees people rushing out of Supre to top up their parking and the staff hear about it.
"We do get a lot of people complaining about having to pay.
"People don't want to come out and have to pay for parking."
At Hannahs footwear store, 3IC Christy Brown says the store is disadvantaged not only by the customers who do not want to pay, but also the staff who have to fork out up to $10 a day.
"I don't think we should have to pay ... it's just ridiculous," she says. "It sucks. People who work here shouldn't have to pay."
Christy agrees that people will opt for shopping centres that have lots of free parking instead of the limited paid parking in central Tauranga.
Mainstreet Tauranga, the council and other organisations form the working party which is continuing to try to find a solution to the parking problems.
The parking issue has been given much consideration in recent years because of efforts to revitalise the CBD. All other shopping centres in Tauranga have free parking and central city retailers want to be able to compete with them without being hindered by parking costs.
If ratepayers were to foot the bill it would have cost each residential ratepayer $29 a year more, and each commercial ratepayer would have to fork out an extra $461 a year.
Mainstreet manager Kirby Weis says the working party is seeking long-term parking management solutions and investigating alternative funding options and says the quicker the issue was resolved, the better.
View on the street - Page 12
