Rotorua parking changes: 'Walk and save'

In her job as a merchandiser, Rotorua's Rose Andrew knows all about the difficulties of finding a parking space on a busy day.

Mrs Andrew said she would come into the central city for work about four times a week, spending at least $2 a day on car parking.

She said the new policy seemed pretty fair.

"Just $2 for eight hours' parking is a good deal, I'd park further out of town for that.

"I think they have come up with an awesome idea, so long as the prices don't keep going up too much.

"Even $2 an hour is relatively cheap if you look at prices for parking in Tauranga or Auckland."

She said that normally she would try to park close to her destination and charging extra for carparks that were in high demand was good for businesses needing to get as many customers through their doors as they could.

Mrs Andrew said that she didn't mind parking a little further away from her destination so she could save money on parking.

"I don't mind doing some window shopping, so the walk's not a problem."

However, she said she was not a fan of pay and display parking.

"It's a bit of a pain. You have to go get the ticket from the box, take it back to your car and put it in under the windscreen."