Hamilton's free parking not fully logged

Hamilton City Council introduced two hour free parking in October last year. Photo / Tom Rowland

More than half of drivers parking in Hamilton's CBD are not having their vehicle details recorded, meaning the two hours a day free parking rule cannot be fully monitored.

It seems there just aren't enough parking wardens to get to every vehicle as it parks to scan the registration details. They are getting to only 40 per cent of cars, even though the new parking scheme set a target of 70 to 80 per cent when it started in October.

When a car parks, a sensor in the road alerts parking wardens who are supposed to come along and scan the registration details to validate the parking.

The scheme, which will be fully reviewed in June, gives motorists two hours free parking in total for that day — either in the one spot or at another spot with a sensor. Each extra hour costs $6.

The head of the council's parking taskforce, Councillor Geoff Taylor, gave a verbal update on the trial scheme to the city council's growth and infrastructure committee meeting on Tuesday. A full report is due to come to the council in April. It is expected to have details of how the scheme has affected council parking revenues, but early indications are there has been a huge reduction.

The meeting on Tuesday was told that the January on street parking metres revenue was $20,000, down from the average monthly revenue of $100,000.

"For it to work as well as it possibly can we need to validate more which could mean we need more parking staff or people need to self validate more, which means everyone will need to be using the app or putting some kiosks in where people put in their registrations," Mr Taylor said.

In his verbal update Mr Taylor also hinted that Sunday's free parking in the CBD rule could be dropped and the charge after two hours be extended to Sunday.

"In some ways the two hours free parking has been a victim of its own success because retailers have raised Sunday parking as an issue now," Mr Taylor said.

Mr Taylor said overall the trial has been a success and has had positive feedback.

"Occupancy rates in the CBD has risen reasonably significantly," Mr Taylor said.

"I am getting really good feedback from businesses and the CBD retailers. A recent analysis by NAI Harcourts says there is currently a high demand from tenants for car parks in and around the CBD and feedback from tenants on the two hour free parking has been positive."