Whanganui parking penalties not increased with new meter system

Parking fines incurred by Whanganui drivers using new meters had not increased. Photo / Bevan Conley

Parking fines in Whanganui have not increased since new meters were installed in March.

Whanganui District Council's chief executive David Langford said the fines have always been $40 for parking in metered areas and not paying at all, and they have always been between $12 and $57 for paying for parking and then exceeding the time limit.

"I think a lot of people may not realise that parking infringement fines are set in legislation under the Land Transport [offences and penalties] Regulations. The council can't just increase the fines," he said.

"Lately, people have been caught out with a $40 fine when they haven't paid to park because our parking meters are a bit smarter than the older versions."

Langford said in the past, the mixture of old parking meter models made it difficult to properly enforce the $40 infringement fine for people failing to pay when they park.

"Parking officers had historically given people the benefit of the doubt and just issued the $12 over-stay fine instead.

"While this was no doubt popular with our community, it was a legislative non-compliance by the council."

Now the new parking meters were operating, Langford said the technology could reliably identify which type of infringement should be issued, making it easier for parking wardens to correctly issue the appropriate fines.

Parking staff had been sympathetic towards the community as they got used to the new system and just over 20 per cent of infringements issued had been warnings only as part of the education campaign, Langford said.

"In addition, where people have made honest mistakes, such as making typos when putting in their car rego, but have still paid for their parking, then we have waived their infringement fines for them."

The 49 new solar-powered meters that accept coins, tap-and-go credit or debit card payments or an app-based payment system replaced 216 old parking meters in central Whanganui.

With the new pay by plate system, users can enter their car registration number and transfer unused time on a meter to another one within the same parking zone.

Zones are defined by the hourly cost to park.

Victoria Ave is a $2.00 per hour zone, off-street carparks are a 50c per hour zone and all other metered parks are in a $1.00 per hour zone. Time limits also apply.