Transport body calls for tougher parking penalties

Auckland Transport says the value of general parking fines has not risen for 15 years. Photo / File

Auckland Transport, which dished out more than $10 million in parking fines last year, wants the Government to let it come down more heavily on non-compliant motorists.

The council agency suggests in a new parking strategy that the value of fines is too low to discourage motorists from risking not paying for park and ride coupons, or exceeding the time on them.

It says it will lobby the Government for an increase in a scale which has been unchanged since 1999.

But the Automobile Association accuses it of springing its fines push without having disclosed its intent in an earlier discussion document put out for public submissions.

Fines in Auckland start at the Government's prescribed maximum of $12 for the first 30 minutes of unpaid parking, rising to $57 for more than six hours.

Those issued in the 2013-14 financial year amounted to $10.1 million, on top of fines of $23 million for unregistered vehicles or lapsed warrants of fitness.

Auckland Transport says the value of general parking fines has not risen for 15 years and Australia's evaders are charged up to eight times more.

An exception has been an almost quadrupling in 2008 of the fine for parking in a mobility space without a disability permit, from $40 to $150.

It says that has cut the number of infringement notices issued for the offence - by 70 per cent to 2012.

A spokesman declined to say how much it wants fines to rise by, saying that was up to the Government.

But Barney Irvine of the AA said his organisation would urge the Government to resist pressure for change.

Transport Minister Simon Bridges and his associate minister, Craig Foss, could not be reached for comment. Mathew Dearnaley