Parking charges would remain the same at $3 an hour between 9am-5pm Monday to Saturday. Parking was free Sundays and public holidays. Photo: RNZ / Cole Eastham-Farrelly
New Plymouth is replacing its ageing, unreliable parking meters - with one-hundred new units with a wider range of payment options.
Up to half of council's existing parking meters had at times not been working properly causing motorists frustration.
NPDC's acting infrastructure manager Helen Gray said the parking meters had reached the end of their operational life.
"We've made a conscious effort to have a mix of units so that people have a range of payment options - some units will take coins and others electronic payments only."
Gray said 60 of the new units would be on-street parking meters, 30 of which would accept coins as well as electronic payments.
Another 40 would be Touch N Go machines where users touch their electronic devices to the screen and follow prompts to got to the PayStay Guest website to make a payment.
The surcharge for people using a credit or debit card to pay at an on-street parking meters was being reduced from 50 cents to 10 cents per transaction.
Other charges imposed by the service providers might apply.
Parking charges would remain the same at $3 an hour between 9am-5pm Monday to Saturday. Parking was free Sundays and public holidays.
Gray said the meters were being leased for $800,000 meaning council had made a saving on the $2 million set-a-side in the long-term plan for parking meter replacements.
The service provider would be responsible for the meters on-going maintenance.
Gray said at the same time, district council was replacing the pay-by-bay system with pay-by-plate for all its on-street metered carparks, meaning motorists would enter their vehicle's number plate rather than the parking bay number.
This system would allow people to move to another on-street metered car park without having to pay another fee, providing they still had time left on their paid parking session.
Pay-by-plate systems were currently installed at New Plymouth Airport and Centre City, and also used by several councils across New Zealand including Auckland, Tauranga, Wellington, Hastings and Napier.
The new system would not affect NPDC parking lease holders; as their details would be updated in the council system as per their lease agreement.
The new on-street meters would be installed from February 17 and were expected to be fully installed by the end of the month.
The Touch N Go machines would be installed between 3-7 March.
By the numbers:
- 880 - the number of paid parking spaces in the New Plymouth CBD.
- 89 - the current number of parking meters - down seven on 2023
- 60 - new on-street parking meters, of which 30 will be able to take coin payments as well as electronic payments.
- 40 - Touch N Go machines being installed where users touch the screen with their electronic device and follow prompts to make a payment.
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