NEWS RELEASE

3 December 2013

Plenty of parking in the CBD this Christmas

Contrary to some ‘urban myths’ floating about the region, there are plenty of parking spaces in available central Wellington in the run-up to the Christmas.

The City Council’s parking staff, along with the operators of private parking buildings around the city, report that there is still a lot of capacity for more cars both on the street and in parking buildings.

The Council’s Chief Operating Officer, Greg Orchard, says two CBD parking buildings – the James Smith’s and Reading buildings – remain closed for repairs following the July and August quakes.

“There are a few urban myths circulating – along the lines that the closure of the two buildings has significantly reduced the amount of available parking space in the CBD.

“However this isn’t true,” says Greg. “Our conversations with operators of parking buildings around town tell us that weekend occupancy of parking buildings is about 40% - in other words there’s loads of space available.”

Observations from the Council’s own traffic and parking staff show that there’s also reasonable turnover and spaces available on the streets – and the situation gets better on the fringes of the CBD. “If you’re willing to walk five or 10 minutes then you are usually in luck,” says Greg.

There are electronic signs around the city to let drivers know how many spaces are available in car park buildings and depending on location, hourly rates for street parking start as low as $1.50 an hour.

While weekend on-street parking in the CBD is free – there is a two-hour time limit that’s in place to ensure a fair turnover of carparks – for the benefit of shoppers and retailers alike.

Greg says that if shoppers want to linger in the CBD longer at the weekends, the cost of parking in a private parking building is reasonable – for example you can park in Tournament’s Plimmer Towers for up to 12 hours on the weekend for only $3. The Wilson car park in Chews Lane costs only $4 for up to 6 hours.

There are also plenty of ways to pay for parking including cash, coupon, credit card, Snapper, TXT-a-Park and phone2park.

To find out more about Council-run parking services, opening times, hourly rates, time restrictions and car park building locations, go to Wellington.govt.nz/parking

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