Council Tweaks Masterton Parking Proposals

Thursday, 14 August 2025, 3:11 pm
Article: Emily Ireland - Local Democracy Reporter

Masterton councillors are looking to ease back its blanket approach to time-limited parking after locals opposed the move. 

Members of the council’s hearings committee met on Wednesday to deliberate on the almost 50 submissions made to the consultation, with quite a few tweaks made to the original proposals. 

These agreed changes would need to be formally adopted by the full council. 

In a report to the hearings committee, economic development lead Matt Steele said Masterton's lack of time-limited parking in key areas reduced vehicle turnover, making it hard for visitors to find spaces.

Problem areas included Queen Elizabeth Park, the recreation centre, the Woolshed, Shear History, and Kuripuni and Lansdowne shopping villages. 

The proposed solution introduced 120-minute time limits to ensure turnover while allowing adequate shopping time. 

However, this blanket approach was not endorsed by the hearings committee due to safety issues for New World staff who would be forced to park two blocks away if time-limited parking came into force behind the supermarket. 

New World owner Kaylea Bradshaw told councillors at last week’s hearing that supermarket staff had been approached by drunk and aggressive people, thought to be homeless, in the early hours of the morning and late at night when going to and from work. 

At Wednesday’s deliberations meeting, hearings committee chair Craig Bowyer said he was inclined to reject the council’s proposal of two-hour parking behind the supermarket. 

“I found the New World submission quite compelling from a safety aspect,” he said. 

Other councillors agreed and they decided the car parks in this area would remain unlimited.

Councillors also discussed the possibility of monitoring the northern end of Queen St where there were safety concerns around the interactions between homeless people and supermarket staff. 

This did not come under the purpose of the deliberations though and would likely be discussed in a different council forum. 

Proposals to enforce a two-hour limit at Kuripuni and Lansdowne shopping villages were also tweaked after hearing from submitters. In Kuripuni, a three-hour limit for on-street parking would be enforced instead of the proposed two-hour limit. 

This would give shoppers enough time to see films at the Screening Room and fit in a spot of shopping, while also ensuring people did not take up parking spaces all day. 

In First St, where the Lansdowne Shopping Village was located, two-hour time limited parking would only be enforced on the southern side of the street. 

The northern side would remain unlimited which would allow people to park and use services offered by the hairdressing and tattooing businesses on this end. 

These services often took more than two hours. Other proposals that were rubber-stamped by the hearings committee included removing the time limit from the Perry St car park near the town hall and standardising the time limit of parking in the CBD. 

Worksop Road from Dixon to Queen St, and Queen St from Worksop to Renall St would become 60-minute zones. 

Queen St from Bruce St to Dixon/Chapel St would become a 120-minute zone. 

Subject to adoption by council, the changes would come into effect from October 31. 

This would allow for new signage to be installed and changes and alternative parking options to be communicated to the community. 

-LDR is local body journalism funded by RNZ and NZ on Air

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