Chloe Swarbrick stands in hopes to replace James Shaw as Green party co-leader. Greta Thunberg has her charges dropped and children all around country are feeling the cost of living as families go without.
Rotorua and Tauranga’s councils have thousands of parking spots, but down the road these numbers will change.Local Democracy Reporting takes a look at what has happened and what changes might be ahead.
Rotorua Lakes Council and Tauranga City Council each have thousands of car parks. Some are free,some are paid, and others are free but time-limited.
Both cities have seen changes to the parking services on offer - and more look to be on the way.
In Rotorua, fees doubled to become $2 an hour from the current financial year and elected members began considering whether to increase the number of paid or time-limited parks in the coming year.
It would also look at promoting the under-used inner-city parking building on Pukuatua St.
When discussing the possibility, Rotorua Mayor Tania Tapsell said the council needed to be careful of “unintended consequences” and spend time engaging with those who used the parks. She said there would need to be a balance between city workers and people wanting to park to use the reserves.
Parking has been a source of some contention in Tauranga, as the council looked to increase paid parking in the city.
Plans were put on hold, however, following community concern. The paid parking extension was to be from Third Ave up to Arundel St, and from McLean St up to Monmouth St and was set initially set for February 26.
The council collects fees via parking machines, permits and the PrestoPark parking app. It contracts i-Park to manage the parking services.
There were 141 faults reported during that time. There are 69 machines.
However, there was no cost to the council for breakdowns or repairs because i-Park carried the cost.
Corporate planning and governance executive director Oonagh Hopkins said the system was constructed in a way that meant there were alternative methods of payment offered and all parkers were required to pay for their parking.
Council vehicles are exempt from parking fines when parked near the council building while working.
Elected members’ cars are exempt from parking fines near the council building when attending to council business.
Tauranga’s council collected $4,765,644, while costs sat at $6,164,035.
It owns three parking buildings. There are 2096 paid parking spaces in the city centre.
Democracy services team leader Kath Norris could not confirm the total number of free time-limited parking bays across the city because she said many were not formally line-marked.
Of the collected $4,765,644, on-street parking totalled $907,586.
March 2023 saw the biggest amount collected in total at $549,085.
As of October, 891 stationary vehicle offence infringement notices remained unpaid from the previous financial year.
Parking repairs and maintenance cost $10,099. There were 44 reported faults and a total downtime of 2.69 hours.
The council leases and uses a total of 133 car parks at an annual cost of $362,227. Fleet vehicles are exempt from paid parking while on council business.
Laura Smith is a Local Democracy Reporting journalist based at the Rotorua Daily Post. She previously reported general news for the Otago Daily Times and Southland Express, and has been a journalist for four years.
- Public Interest Journalism funded through NZ on Air
