The move means motorists will pay for on-street car parking from 8am Tuesday 12 May following seven weeks of free parking due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Coupon and resident parking charges and time restrictions such as P120 will also apply from this time.
Councillor Jenny Condie, who holds the Council’s parking portfolio, says councillors voted at a council meeting on 9 April to reinstate paid parking two weeks after a return to COVID-19 Alert Level 3.
“We went to Alert Level 3 last Tuesday, so a under a week from now we’ll be charging again for parking on Wellington city streets from 12 May.”
Councillor Condie says a number of temporary, free 15-minute parking areas will also be available from 12 May in the city and a number of suburbs, including Newtown, Kilbirnie, Johnsonville and Tawa.
“We are encouraging Wellingtonians to Love Local and these parks are so people can quickly collect takeaway orders from businesses and food outlets under the different COVID-19 Alert Levels.”
The P15 parks will be in place until Alert Level 1 and will be clearly signposted. A directory showing the location of the parks can be found here in the parking section of the Council website.
In addition to on-street parking, Clifton Car Park has reopened and will provide free parking until 7am on Tuesday 12 May. Normal parking charges will apply thereafter.
Wellington city on-street parking will remain free through to 6pm Monday 11 May.
Since moving to Alert Level 3, the Council has received a high number of complaints from members of the public trying to access Loading Zones to drop-off goods to businesses and finding that they are occupied by vehicles parking on them for significant periods, leaving nowhere for delivery vehicles to safely unload. Therefore the enforcement of Loading Zones started again on Wednesday 6 May.
Further details of parking changes:
- All normal payment options will be available at the meters, including cash, debit and credit cards and the text2park payment option for Spark and Vodafone customers.
- The PayMyPark phone app will again be available for customers to use from Tuesday 12 May.
- Enforcement of Bus Lanes will begin again from Tuesday 12 May.
- Customers will be able to buy coupons from retailers or via PayMYPark app. The Council’s Service Centre which will remain closed during Alert Level 3 – but may reopen with limited services and pending Ministry of Health guidelines at Level 2.
- Vehicle stickers for people who applied for and had their resident parking applications approved during the Alert Level 4 lockdown will be printed in the coming weeks. In the meantime parking officers have access to resident-only parking vehicle details, including those yet to receive their new or replacement sticker.
- All parking officers will be strictly adhering to 2 meter distancing when nearing any members of the public.