Parking in Tauranga’s city centre will be free on Saturdays and after 5pm on weekdays after it was found charging for it affected the number of visitors
Tauranga City Council re-introduced paid on-street parking in December 2022 to encourage a higher turnover of carparks because CBD workers were using them to park all day.
The paid parking “may be impacting city centre footfall and average spending by those visiting the city” said a report by council parking strategy manager Reece Wilkinson.
The decision to reduce on-street paid parking hours from 6pm to 5pm and make it free on Saturdays was made at a council meeting today.
The changes will begin from Saturday June 3.
Wilkinson told the commissioners the parking rates were “working as they should.”
He said the majority of on-street parking transactions were between one to two hours and there was a 17 per cent increase in daily parking transactions since December.
Commission chair Anne Tolley said the council would “have to do more to bring people into the city on the weekends”.
Commissioner Stephen Selwood asked for staff to report back on how effective the changes were in six months’ time.
Downtown Tauranga chair Ashleigh Gee said Saturday parking charges had a “dramatic impact on the ground”.
There was a “dramatic impact on the ground” with the return of Saturday car parking charges, she said.
Credit: sunlive.co.nz
