Leniency for wof and rego tickets

Car owners who forget to renew their warrants of fitness and registration have been given an unexpected bonus by the city council.
They will get an extra month's grace to avoid paying a fine if they are ticketed by Tauranga City Council parking wardens.
Sympathy for the plight of motorists who get stung with $200 fines persuaded a pre-Christmas council meeting this week to extend the period to two months.
It means that anyone whose vehicle was unwarranted or unregistered for up to two months will automatically escape paying a fine provided they make their cars legal within 14 days.
The offer goes out for public consultation early next year and will take effect from July 1.
A survey of parked cars in Tauranga's downtown last week by the Bay of Plenty Times revealed 19 cars with expired registrations.
Cr Bill Grainger called for relaxing the rules after grumblings among some councillors about the additional powers of parking wardens to issue tickets for expired warrants and registrations.
"There are plenty of people like myself who forget these things ... four weeks is a little too short," Cr Grainger said, after confessing to being caught by wardens.
One of the few councillors to oppose extending the period of grace was Cr David Stewart, who said there was no excuse if the warrant or registration had lapsed for longer than a month.
Driving an unwarranted car was a public hazard and the council had a role to play in road safety, he said.
Cr Stewart said it was a hot issue and the Bay of Plenty Times story had created an uproar at a meeting he attended at Papamoa.
Cr Larry Baldock supported extending the period of grace, recalling the time he jumped into his car and realised that his registration had expired.
"I said shoo, how did I miss that?"
He defended the work of the wardens and said the council was doing a service for motorists who had forgotten to renew their warrants or registrations. They got no insurance in an accident.
Cr Grainger's initiative was also supported on the grounds that it was a factor in why people did not come into town to shop.
When it was revealed that wardens did not check cars parked in council parking buildings because the buildings were not deemed public land, Cr Rick Curach said this needed to be advertised.