The Star was approached by a contractor who regularly does jobs in the central city, who expressed concern that the convenient card-based parking payment system had not been available for the past three months.
The contractor, who did not wish to be named, said the situation was disruptive for regular users, who were having to go back to carting bags of coins around, or pay for parking with credit cards.
"At the moment, I am having to keep truck-loads of money in the van, and I'm back to having loads of those little paper tickets floating around,'' he said.
The SmartPark meters could be set for a particular parking zone and then clipped over a vehicle's rear-view mirror to count down parking time.
The old-style meters could be topped up using cards bought from Dunedin City Council service centres.
Auckland-based SmartPark is working to upgrade the meters to a fully electronic version, which can be topped up online.
The delay has been caused by the need to agree on a new contract with the DCC.
In the meantime, the top-up cards are not being sold, meaning the system is unavailable for the moment.
SmartPark director Graeme Lockery said, when contacted, the company had been working to arrange a new agreement with the council, which was being drafted now.
He and SmartPark manager Mark Lockery hoped to visit Dunedin in the next week or two to talk to council staff in person and sign a new agreement.
"It [the situation] is being addressed. It is just taking a little longer than we had hoped,'' Mr Lockery said.
He hoped to have the contract situation resolved by early August.
The company was receiving calls from regular SmartPark users, many of whom were companies, who were keen to have the new system under way. He estimated there were hundreds of users in Dunedin.
SmartPark operated more than 3000 of the meters in Wellington, he said.
DCC fleet and parking operations team leader Reece Smith confirmed the contract with SmartPark had expired and said the council was in discussions with the company.
Most Dunedin contractors used the parking permit system, Mr Smith said.
The permits were bought from customer services staff in the Civic Centre and displayed in vehicles.
Contractors might wish to use this system in the meantime, he said.
• From July 1, lease park holders in Dunedin's 11 DCC car parks have experienced a small fee increase.
More than 400 letters were sent out recently notifying park holders of the changes.
Most DCC fees and charges rose an average of 3% from July 1.
These were consulted on and signed off by the council as part of the annual plan process.
