Porirua collected seven-figure revenue from paid parking last year, returning a $210,000 profit to ratepayers.
By Justin Wong of Local Democracy Reporting
Figures presented to Porirua City Council during a workshop earlier this month showed, in the year ending June, revenue from city centre paid parking was $2.09 million.
Subtracting $1.36m to run the council’s parking team and another $520,000 of indirect costs, that generated the council a $210,000 profit.
A council spokesperson said the $520,000 included the council’s overhead costs to run IT, human resources and other support services.
Without the overhead costs, the net surplus of $730,000 "was more than budgeted for" in previous modelling, the spokesperson continued.
These numbers were part of efforts to formulate a citywide parking policy, to guide how the city’s council-owned parking was managed.
The council attempted to introduce city centre paid parking in January 2022 – but, after public furore, it was put on hold until March 2023, when it was rolled out to designated zones in the city centre.
'Not for a financial purpose'
Council chief executive Wendy Walker said paid parking was not just to generate extra council revenue, but also deter long-stay parking in short-stay places such as Cobham Court.
"It's for a policy purpose, not for a financial purpose. It has the consequence of having a financial outcome."
Council officials said nationwide data on electronic card spending and business registration counts could not conclusively link paid parking to recent reduced consumer spending in the city centre, but they could not rule out that there was no impact.
Senior analyst Kieran Brown said the decline had been felt across New Zealand.
"What we saw in the city centre over the last few years is in line with what was seen in other centres around the country, which suggests that the main driver has been the wider economic downturn, as opposed to the paid parking introduction," Brown said.
Walker said the council would talk to businesses and get their views before finalising any parking policy.
At the workshop, councillors also received a compilation of parking enforcement data across the city, near schools, major event locations and new developments.
The data found unsafe parking was the primary issue around the city’s schools, as demand at drop-off and pick-up over-ran safe supply, which resulted in congestion and unsafe parking that put children at risk.
At Porirua Park, the available parking was sufficient for small events of under 1000 spectators, but it was not enough for larger events, such as the A-League Women semi-final in May, with cars illegally parked and spilling into nearby areas.
Parking at Te Rauparaha Arena reached 148% capacity during the annual Te Kiwa Nui Festival in August.
For popular weekend sport locations, parking at Ngāti Toa Domain, Kura Park, Onepoto Park and Ascot Park often breached maximum occupancy.
Councillor Josh Trlin said there was "really poor use of private land" in the city centre where it was used as "massive" car parks that were never full.
"There's no financial incentive for people who own that land currently to use the land differently."
The council will receive a draft parking policy in mid-November.
– Local Democracy Reporting is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air
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