Auckland to charge for street parking until 10 each night

Photo / Richard Robinson

Free after-hours parking on central Auckland streets is likely to be rolled back as pay-and-display charges are extended until 10 each night.

The Auckland City Council's transport committee has endorsed a proposal to add four hours to the 6pm cut-off on pay-and-display charging for street parking in the downtown area.

It says it will heed public reaction to the idea and will hold a public consultation at the end of this month. It would like to introduce the move from the end of this year.

The council's parking services group says growing numbers of inner-city residents are monopolising free spaces all night, making it harder for others to reach restaurants, cinemas and bars in the evenings.

The group proposes half-price charges after 6pm, making the parking fee $2 an hour.

A six-month trial will start within a week in several streets around the eastern side of Viaduct Harbour, where parking is under pressure because of the area's mix of bars, restaurants and apartment buildings.

Transport committee chairman Ken Baguley denied last night that the council saw the scheme as a way of making extra money.

He said it would not make much money, but would give everyone a better chance of finding a parking space.

Some inner-city residents owned their own parking spaces or paid monthly leases, and it was not fair on them if others were able to hog street parking all night.

Acting parking group manager Rick Bidgood said that although Auckland would be the first New Zealand council to charge after-hours street parking fees, it was well behind Australian cities in using them to manage travel demand and improve inner-city nightlife.

A staff report forecast $1.01 million in extra annual parking revenue after an assumed 30 per cent reduction in occupancy of parking spaces.

Reprogramming pay-and-display machines and changing signs would cost $544,000.

Overall, city parking revenue is expected to be almost $32 million this financial year.

Hauraki Gulf councillor Denise Roche said she was "very uncomfortable" about the committee endorsing the proposal without the report having been available for public inspection.

"Our residents should have had the opportunity to read the report," she said.

But Mr Bidgood told the committee that public reaction to the proposal would be reported back to it, and the CBD board would be specifically consulted.

Heart of the City business association chief executive Alex Swney said his organisation looked forward to being consulted.

But it was very concerned about the use of parking charges in the absence of other travel-demand management tools such as free bus shuttles.