Parking fines generate $2.4m a year

Dunedin parking officers have to issue $2.4 million worth of parking fines each year just to ensure drivers behave, a Dunedin City Council manager says.

In response to a request for information and questions posed by The Star, development services manager Kevin Thompson has defended revenue of $2,414,000 the city's 12 parking officers are forecast to bring in through issuing parking infringement notices in the current financial year.

While officers had no quota for infringement notices, they consistently issued a combined annual total of 70,000 to 75,000 fines in order to keep parking spaces available and the streets flowing, Mr Thompson said.

"There can be absolute mayhem when we're not out there," he said.

During the past three financial years, income from parking infringements has risen by a third, from $1.870 million in the year to June 30, 2008, to a forecast of $2.414 million in the year to June 30, 2010.

The goal of the city's parking enforcement division was "not to reduce the number of parking infringement notices, rather it is to promote desired parking behaviour and the availability of parking spaces", Mr Thompson said.

This had to be done through fines because there would always be those who broke the rules, he said.

"A lot of it comes down to human behaviour. There will always be some people who don't comply. You can reduce it a certain amount, but I think there is a threshold you reach."

Mr Thompson believed there had been some improvement in driver behaviour.

The number of parking officers had doubled in the past three years and the number of metered parking spaces had also increased significantly but there had not been an equivalent increase in the number of fines issued, he said.

The increasing revenue from fines was attributable to a change in the type of infringement notice being issued.

"We have been picking up more unlicensed and unwarranted vehicles, particularly in the past 12 months."

Fines for unlicensed vehicles are $200 and for unwarranted vehicles are $150.

Most of the revenue from issuing parking fines was soaked up by the cost of administering the system, Mr Thompson said.

Expenses had risen from $1.868 million three years ago to forecast expenses of $2.039 million this financial year.

The largest chunk of that expenditure this year is $965,000 for internal charges by other city council departments for services such as financial management, human resources, property rental and handling customer calls.

Other expenses include $591,000 for wages and salaries, $496,000 for lodgement of court fines and $104,000 for general administration.

This year's projected surplus of $375,000 will go into the city council's consolidated fund "to assist in offsetting any council departments' budget deficits".

Projected revenue from other parking services during this financial year are $3.002 million from parking meters and $2.842 million from parking buildings and off-street car parks.

If current trends continue, parking meters will have a $360,000 surplus, which will be eaten up by parking buildings' projected deficit of $450,000.