15 November 2012

New City Centre Parking Zone designed to increase visitation

A new City Centre Parking Zone, along with some other new parking initiatives, will be introduced by Auckland Transport from Monday, 19 November. Areas within the Zone will be introduced in phases, starting with the Wynyard Quarter area, moving onto Downtown towards Midtown, learning quarter, Karangahape Rd and concluding with Western side of the CBD to Viaduct Harbour. Areas will be colour coded in Blue, Green and Orange and payment information will be included on parking machines. Customers are advised to check information as soon as they have parked their vehicles.

Auckland Transport’s Chief Operating Officer, Greg Edmonds says, “The objective of the City Centre Parking Zone is to improve access and increase visitation to the CBD by ensuring on-street parking is available to use and more customer friendly. Parking is part of the transport mix in the city along with public transport and active transport use.

“Time limits will be removed with vehicle turnover encouraged through the use of demand responsive pricing and a graduated tariff. If you want to stay all day, you will pay.

“A ten minute “grace period” will be introduced which will allow the removal of some short-term parking restrictions as people will be able to stop anywhere for up to ten minutes before payment is required. This is a customer friendly option allowing quick pick-ups and drop offs and extends parking options for the likes of couriers and delivery companies”, says Mr Edmonds.

Peak casual hourly rates will be reduced to $3.00 an hour in Auckland Transport’s Civic, Downtown and Victoria Street car parks. The current rate is $5.50 per hour for the first two hours and $4.00 or $5.00 per hour thereafter.

A daily maximum of $17.00 per day will also be introduced in these car parks to encourage people to use car parking buildings for longer stays, freeing up on street parking. The daily maximum currently sits at $29.00.

Early-bird car parking times will move from 9.30am to 8.30am to better manage and reflect Auckland’s morning peak travel times.

On-street parking prices will remain unchanged at $4 per hour for the first two hours in the core CBD. Occupancy will be monitored and prices will be adjusted to match demand. For instance, prices will be lowered by $1 per hour when the average occupancy is less than 50% in an area.

Both on-street and off street parking prices will be reviewed after six months.

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Scoop Business: Bathurst Gets Nod For DoC Access To Denniston Mine

Conservation Minister Nick Smith has approved access over conservation estate land for Bathurst Resources to develop an open cast coal mine on the Denniston Plateau, above Westport, to the dismay of environmental opponents.

The timing for Smith’s move avoids Bathurst having to resubmit applications for access agreements under the revised Crown Minerals Act, which comes into force tomorrow and would have required public consultation.

The announcement lands in the middle of delicate negotiations between the company, environmental groups and other interested parties that could pave the way to a broader agreement on the Escarpment proposal, whose resource consents are still subject to court appeals. More>>