The Dunedin City Council is buying a privately run car park offering cheaper fees and increasing them to match its own, but a council manager denies the action is monopolistic.
About 100 motorists using leased spaces at the privately owned Thomas Burns St car park, near the Dunedin Railway Station, have received letters from the operator saying their parks will be owned by the council from July 1.
The property is owned by Calder Stewart and operated by Dunedin Parking.
The council, which owns a car park immediately to the north, plans to increase fees from $18 to $25 per week.
That will bring the private park into line with the council park, at present separated only by a fence.
Council city property manager Robert Clark confirmed the purchase, which was being finalised, but could not yet say what the council had paid for the land.
Council transportation planning manager Sarah Connolly said the property was a "strategic" and "forward planning" purchase, and could be used to develop a new tree-lined parking area.
Alternatively, it could provide the land required to realign a nearby curve in Thomas Burns St, she said.
Council development services manager Kevin Thompson denied the deal amounted to monopolistic behaviour by the council.
He said the purchase was not driven by his department, which was merely tasked with running the park until it was otherwise required. It made sense to bring fees for the adjoining car parks into line.
"We're going to pull the fence out and you're back to one car park."
Increasing the fee to $25 per week was part of a wide-ranging review of council parking fees begun last year and approved by councillors during annual plan meetings in January, he said.
That resulted in fees for leased parks increasing at most of the council's off-street car parks and buildings, some by up to $8 a week.
The changes were subject to final approval by councillors at the next full council meeting on June 27, when the 2011-12 annual plan would be confirmed.
Responding to a complaint in an Otago Daily Times letter to the editor earlier last week, Mr Thompson said the fees were calculated in part by considering the on-street charges for nearby meters, and what private operators were charging.
Mr Thompson said decisions such as the controversial hiking of on-street parking fees in 2009 and the buy-out of an operator offering lower fees than the council were made by councillors.
"Staff can recommend, and have reasons for why they want to set it at whatever ... [but] it's not the staff that set that fee. It's the councillors."
The proposed fee increases would add a projected $107,060 to the council's parking revenue in 2011-12.
