Mike Hignett's coins came tumbling out of the parking meter as fast as he put them in. He doesn't want to pay using his credit card or the PayMyPark app. Photo: RNZ/ Robin Martin
Drivers in New Plymouth are crying foul over the council continuing to issue parking tickets in the central business area despite almost half its meters not working correctly.
Some machines have crashed completely while many no longer accept cash, leaving motorists fearing an instant $40 fine.
Of the 96 parking meters in the central business area just 53 are working properly. Eight are dead, while the remaining 35 do not accept one form of payment.
Trish popped into town for a bite of lunch, but the meter she tried wanted nothing to do with her coins.
"The money went straight through, came straight out and that gentleman there, he tried the same and the money just came straight out - so we're afraid we're going to get a $40 fine because if you don't put any money in, a $40 fine is just automatic."
When a meter did not accept coins, the council expected drivers take a hike to the nearest machine that did - or use a payWave credit card or the PayMyPark app. It continued to fine people if there was a machine nearby with one payment form operating.
Trish was not keen on using her credit card for such small amounts.
"No, for 50 cents or a dollar, no."
She had not tried the app either.
"No, I haven't. I guess I'm behind the times there. You're talking to an old lady here."
Trish reckoned cash was king. Mike Hignett, who had similar problems, was on the same page.
"It wouldn't accept any cash, it wouldn't accept my coins and that's all I wanted to use, so what do I do? Wait until I get a ticket and go around and talk to them."
Alternative forms of payment were not for him either.
"I could use payWave but apparently that costs you more, doesn't it? And I'm not that familiar with it, I just like to bang some coins in. I don't like to use my credit card."
The app got the thumbs down too.
"No, no I'm too old for that, to be worried about that. I don't use it."
Morris West parked in town for work. He reckoned the council should stop issuing parking fines.
"Not at all, not even in the slightest and even if they over park now, because apparently I've been told that the sensors underneath the cars don't work anymore anyway."
Morris West is fed up with faulty parking meters and reckons no one should be fined.
New Plymouth's parking machines have a chequered history. Photo: RNZ/ Robin Martin
Installed in 2012 at a cost of $1.2 million, five years later the 1600 sensors needed replacing for a further $800,000 because they no longer communicated with the wardens' hand-held devices.
Then in 2020, about 500 sensors were turned off after their batteries started exploding following a botched attempt at waterproofing them.
Councillor Murray Chong, who had previously spoken out about the city's parking meter woes, believed no one should be fined.
"If we haven't got a service that's fit for purpose why are we fining these people? People go into town and they know the meters are there. If the meters aren't working, what are they supposed to do?"
He wanted to know who was responsible for maintaining the meters and who was paying to fix them.
Fellow councillor Max Brough was also horrified.
"Cash money is legal tender in this country, so we have an obligation to accept that as a form of payment and not try to avoid it. That's my view, we have to be accepting legal tender."
Max Brough feared the council bought a lemon of a system in 2012 which was now coming to the end of its useful life, and there was no budget to replace it.
Meanwhile, West had found a home for some of that rejected shrapnel.
"I was struggling to get a coin in, so I gave the machine a bit of a tap and $5 fell out in coins and there was no way of putting back in three extra coins that I got, so I just gave it away to one of the guys sitting on the side of the road."
Council group manager for community and customer services Teresa Turner said while it expected to have some issues due to the age of the machines, it was frustrated with the number of faults and the time it was taking to fix them.
"This has been an ongoing issue for several months, with one of the payment options being unavailable the most common problem," Turner said. "Contractors are instructed to fix the machines immediately."
Turner accepted motorist were frustrated and said that council did consider fine cancellation requests on a case-by-case basis.
"But it's worth remembering that credit card payments at the machine and the PayMyPark app, which allows you to pay via your smartphone, are also available."
Problems with the machines had not affected parking revenue, which was tracking ahead of last year.
Excluding leased carparks, between 1 January and 30 April 2023 parking revenue was $523,000, compared to $470,000 for the same period in 2022.
