Motorists and retailers get new parking deal

DCC contractors and staff will begin work this Saturday to change maximum parking restrictions in George and Princes Street and surrounding streets following a change of heart by the Council this week.

The new chair of the Council’s Parking Review Working Party, Cr Syd Brown, has appealed for patience and co-operation from city motorists as the changes are implemented.

“We’ve acknowledged we got some elements of the strategy wrong and we’re moving as quickly as possible to redesignate those areas which have come under attack, while at the same time our Working Party will, over the next couple of weeks, analyse other data about the strategy’s impact on parking patterns.

“It’s not possible to wave a magic wand and change everything overnight so I appeal to motorists to give us a chance to get the job done. In return I promise our parking enforcement team will be taking a generous and understanding approach to ticketing during the change period.”

To avoid confusion about what the metered time is on Saturday motorists are urged to comply with the terms and conditions displayed on the parking meter at the time of their arrival.

The changes adopted by the Council at its meeting apply to maximum stay periods not the hourly tariff.

Specifically:

• The maximum stay in George and Princes Street between Rattray and Albany Streets will now be 30 minutes.

• The maximum stay in the remainder of the core parking zone will be one hour except for those areas designated 30 minutes maximum around Dunedin Hospital and the existing four hour maximum limit in the Great King Street and Cumberland Street blocks surrounding the hospital.

• The core zone is the block made up of the Octagon, Filleul and Great King Streets through to London Street and Frederick Street and all streets inside that area bounded by Cumberland Street on Hanover and Frederick Streets.

The membership of the newly appointed Parking Review Working Party is:

• Crs Brown (chair) Acklin, Guest, Noone
• a representative of the community, Professor Herbert Harris, a transport expert
• Conway Powell, representing the Otago Chamber of Commerce
• David Ojala, representing the University of Otago
• Sonja Dillon, representing Otago Health Board.

The Working Party will meet soon to consider data collected during last week’s survey of parking users and parking patterns, and will report back to the Council in November.