New parking meters ensure compliance says council chief

Published on 10 August 2022

Whanganui District Council’s chief executive David Langford says parking fines have not been increased by the council since the introduction of new parking meters in March this year. 

David Langford says the fines have always been $40.00 for parking in metered areas and not paying at all and they have always been between $12.00 and $57.00 for paying for parking and then exceeding the time limit.

He says, “I think a lot of people may not realise that parking infringement fines are set in legislation under the Land Transport (Offences and Penalties) Regulations. The council can’t just increase the fines.”

“Lately,” he says, “people have been caught out with a $40.00 fine when they haven’t paid to park because our parking meters are a bit smarter than the older versions.”

“In the past the mixture of old parking meter models made it difficult to properly enforce the $40.00 infringement fine for failing to pay when they park.”

David Langford says, “Historically council parking officers gave people the benefit of the doubt and just issued the $12.00 over-stay fine instead. While this was no doubt popular with our community it was a legislative non-compliance by the council.

“Now that the new parking meters are operating, the new technology can reliably identify which type infringement should be issued, making it easier for our parking wardens to correctly issue the appropriate fines.”

He says, “From a customer service point of view; our teams have been sympathetic towards our community as they get used to the new system. Just over 20 percent of infringements issued have been warnings only as part of our education campaign.

“In addition, where people have made honest mistakes, such as making typos when putting in their car rego, but have still paid for their parking, then we have waived their infringement fines for them.”