Car parks spend $1m to beat bug

Nearly $1 million will be spent to ensure motorists can get in and out of two city car parks on New Year's Day.

The Year 2000 bug is forcing the replacement of ticketing machines and barrier arms at the Downtown and Victoria St car parks.

Auckland City Council parking facilities manager David Keen said his department was "not sure what it's up against."

Barrier arms, ticketing and automatic payment machines were at the end of their operational life and not Y2K-compliant.

Victoria St has been upgraded at a cost of $260,000, but Mr Keen said the full extent of the Downtown work was not yet known.

Computerised lighting and telephone systems might also need to be replaced.

Parking financial services manager Rex de Lille said the $650,000 Downtown upgrade had been brought forward to avoid the Y2K bottleneck as the end of the year approached.

New equipment would be installed in the 1400-space building by late September, in time for the America's Cup challenger series.

On the North Shore, council property administration officer Ron Johnson has sought written assurances from council parking-lot operators that ratepayers will be able to park and pay next year with no problems.

An official said street meters were fully compliant as they were time, not date, driven.

Manukau and Waitakere councils said they had no compliance problems with their parking facilities.

- Diattima De Boni