Community blow-back has led to a pause of big changes to Oamaru’s paid parking.
A Waitaki District Council media statement this week said planned changes to the one-hour free parking in the Oamaru CBD and consultation on extending paid parking have been put on hold ahead of the February 17 full meeting of the council.
In May last year, the previous council approved replacing Oamaru’s parking meters, consulting with the community on extending metered parking to other areas of the historic precinct and harbour, and a six-month trial of changing the CBDs one-hour free parking to a 15-minute courtesy period to pay at a machine, or using the PayMyPark app.
"We’ve heard the community express concern about trial changes to parking in the CBD, which is why we've asked for this pause and more information," Waitaki District Mayor Mel Tavendale said.
"We’re not ruling out a future change in the one-hour free parking in town, as we try to reduce the ratepayer contribution to the cost of maintaining our carparks."
The previous council’s proposals were heavily criticised after details were made public last year.
The proposal comprised introducing payments for 179 free-parking spots in Wansbeck St, between Tyne St and Holmes Wharf (including the farmers’ market and Scott’s Brewery carparks), the whole of the Humber St off-street carpark, the Waterfront Rd Oamaru Penguins off-street carpark and Itchen St on-street parks between Tees and Wharfe Sts.
Council chief executive Alex Parmley said the resolution of the previous council directed the council to reduce one-hour free parking to a 15-minute courtesy period and consult on extending metered parking.
The change from one-hour free-parking to five minutes had been supposed to start at the beginning of February.
"However, with the request for a paper at February’s meeting, it’s right to press pause until the current council has provided us with further direction."
