Pay for Parking and Walk Away

New Plymouth’s new ‘pay and walk away’ parking system goes live this Monday (19 November).

After weeks of having sensors installed in parking spaces, the new parking machines are appearing on the central city streets in readiness for go-live on Monday.

“We’ll have volunteers in high-vis in the central city from early morning to mid-afternoon on Monday to help anyone who’s unsure about how to use the new parking machines,” says Manager Regulatory Services Simon Pickford.

“The machines have a very easy step by step process to pay for parking but if you’re stumped, just look out for our volunteers and they’ll help you.”

With the new machines, users can just pay and walk away – there is no ticket to put on a car dashboard.

“The machines issue a receipt and we recommend that people keep that as proof of payment. If you inadvertently pay for a different parking bay than you’re using and you get a ticket, the receipt will prove that you did pay for parking.

“We will be monitoring and enforcing as usual, but there will be leniency in the early days as people get used to selecting the right parking bay for payment.”

There are eight parking spaces for each parking machine. Payment can be made at that machine or one of the two machines either side.

To use the parking machines just enter the number of the parking space you are using, select your type of payment, pay for your parking, then take your receipt and walk away.

To start with the parking machines will take only coins. The Council expects the credit card system and payment by mobile phone to be online in the coming weeks.

When the additional payment systems are live there will be a 50c telecoms cost for mobile phone payment (Vodafone and Telecom only) plus a $2 minimum payment, and a 20c bank fee for credit cards (Visa and Mastercard only).

“The charges are unavoidable, but the extra payment options are worthwhile when people are short of cash,” says Mr Pickford.

SuperGold card users will still have free parking until 11am – just pop the alternative card (available from the Council) on your dashboard as usual. There are no changes for drivers with mobility cards.

Some of the existing parking meters have already been removed, and the rest will be taken down from Saturday afternoon.

Gill Street between Liardet and Gover streets will remain as pay and display until early next year after the road has been resurfaced.

The public can try out the new system right now at the Wind Wand Car Park or the parking machine on display in the Civic Centre foyer.