Free Parking Trial Extended in Hastings

The free parking trial in Hastings will be extended until June, but with a few tweaks.

To overcome the problem of workers having nowhere in town where they can park all day, the off-street council Eastern and Southern car parks will revert to paid parking at 50 cents an hour, and have no time limits. To provide further long term parking, the Northern, Lyndon Rd, King St and Queen St West, will also be 50 cents an hour, but will have three hour time limits.

A time line for the changes had not yet been finalised, as council staff need to reactivate pay and display machines and arrange new signs, however plenty of notice will be given, said planning and regulatory services general manager John O’Shaughnessy.

In one other change, the four hour free parks on Karamu Rd, Queen St East, Warren St North and Russell St South will be reduced to two hours. That will address concerns from business owners in those areas that the four hour parks are being used as long term parks by city workers, locking their customers out of parks.

Outside of those two changes, the city’s on-street parks will remain free and with the current time limits.

The decision to extend the free parking trial was passed unanimously at a council meeting today (Feb 18).

Councillors heard that while it was very hard to link the free parking with increased retail spending recorded over recent months, there was definitely a “feel good” factor that added to the vibrancy in the city. Residents had also told some councillors that not having to track down loose change to put in the meters was appreciated.

Between now and the end of June council will work on options for covering the cost of the parking regime. It cost about $1.1 million a year, with about $640,000 of income coming from things like ticketing for expired vehicle warrants and registrations and car park leases. That left about $460,000 to be found. The parking costs remain fairly fixed, with staff still required to ensure parking time limits are adhered to, and to police warrants and registrations.

There will be a full public consultation this year on whether to permanently continue with free on-street car parking as part of council’s Annual Plan discussions with the community, said mayor Lawrence Yule.

“Although we call it free parking, in actual fact there is a cost. What we, as a community, have to decide is whether we want to pay for parking through a contribution through rates, or when we park by putting coins in a meter.”

Options will be put to the community in April.

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