By Anna Sargent of RNZ
Dozens of parents doing drop-offs and pick-ups at a Christchurch childcare centre have been wrongly fined for all-day parking due to a camera glitch.
The Landing carpark in Wigram provides spaces for Kindercare Wigram Skies and a number of businesses and retail stores, with time limits enforced by contractor Parking Enforcement Services, a division of Wilson Parking.
The company’s cameras used licence plate recognition technology to capture vehicles entering and exiting the carpark, and fines were mailed to overstayers.
RNZ has been told parents have been wrongly fined for parking too long in the complex when they simply drove through The Landing carpark.
Parent Chris said his wife was fined $85 after cameras captured the family car arriving at 11am and leaving at 4pm in October 2024, when she had only made two separate, brief visits.
“We live 400 metres from the kindy so it makes no sense for us to park up and walk home. What really got me was the evidence they relied upon was two images of a moving vehicle where there’s an allegation of parking,” he said.
When he appealed to Parking Enforcement Services, the company did not admit its cameras were faulty but eventually agreed to waive the fine as an “educational opportunity”, Chris said.
Kindercare chief executive Kelly Wendelborn estimated up to 40 parents had contacted the centre over incorrect breach notices.
“Our centre director has been a superstar, going the extra mile by personally assisting affected families with appeals processes, providing documentation to demonstrate correct parking usage,” he said.
“The whole situation has created unnecessary stress for our families.”
The problem began after static LPR camera enforcement was launched at The Landing in August 2023.
Wendelborn said Kindercare had been working to resolve the issues. The Wigram centre had warned parents about the problem in December 2023 and again in October last year.
Wigram resident Hayden said he was fined in October 2024 after making three trips in one day to New World at The Landing for items for his child’s first birthday.
“I was just in and out three times but obviously they thought I was parked there all day,” he said.
Hayden said the fine was waived after he provided evidence from Google tracking on his phone.
“I was lucky enough to have Google tracking on my phone so it was easy but for an elderly person or someone who doesn’t have that capability it might be quite painful for them,” he said.
Parking Enforcement Services conceded it had identified some cases of misreads that resulted in incorrect breach notices, including parents dropping off or picking up children at Kindercare Wigram Skies, but declined to say how many.
“We have installed an additional camera to cover the Kindercare carpark area. This enables us to increase the number of plate reads and improve accuracy in areas that have high volumes of vehicles entering and exiting the carpark,” the company said.
“We acknowledge that all technology is not 100 percent infallible.
“We take this matter seriously and have been proactive in addressing it.”
Parking Enforcement Services said it regularly checked and upgraded the system’s accuracy.
“[We] are in regular communication with Kindercare and other businesses to keep them informed and ensure they can assist parents and customers to mitigate any issues, such as offering QR codes for extended parking times, educating carpark users about restrictions, and assisting with appeals,” it said.
“When any issues do arise, we investigate and waive breach notices where errors are found.
“We apologise for any inconvenience this has caused. We want to make it clear that if anyone believes they have received an incorrect breach notice, they are encouraged to contact us via our appeals process on our [www.pesnz.co.nz website] or call us directly on 0800-727-536. Our appeals process and contact details are also on the breach notices and our signage.”
Chris said the situation was unacceptable.
“It’s deceptive of Parking Enforcement Services in the first place to knowingly have their number plate recognition cameras that are not working correctly, and still issue their breach notices anyway,” he said.
“To me that’s fraudulent, they’re trying to get money out of people and the way I see it vulnerable people will roll and they’ll just pay. My father would probably pay, the elderly, the people that can’t be bothered with the fight.
“Parking Enforcement Services should have the integrity and professionalism to refund every single infringement that’s been paid to them since the issue was first identified.”
Community Law Canterbury supervising solicitor Charles Mullins said parking fine appeals could be a time-consuming and onerous process, including finding appropriate evidence.
“If the fees are unpaid they will escalate and send the matter to a debt collector which will demand a payment,” he said.
“Importantly, if someone disputes the alleged breach they should write to the parking contractor and clearly state that the parking as alleged is in dispute. The parking company or the person parking can take the matter to the disputes tribunal.”
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