Living in fear of a car parking fine

Many  have commented recently on the issue of over-zealous car parking wardens in the city, and some have stated a desire to see parking enforcement (and even parking buildings themselves!) bought back under direct Council control.

It’s not just a problem confined to the CBD either. Yesterday, while door knocking in Kilbirnie, I came across a lady who had received  $200 parking fine for having her unregistered trailer on the road in front of her house over the Christmas holiday period  (the ticket was issued on 4th January this year).  Of course, this being Wellington, her house was several steps up from the road, and  there wasn’t actually any way  it could be off the road while it waited to be re-registered.

Well, she knew she was technically in the wrong, but was cross about it anyway, so she took the matter to court. She defended the case herself and ended up losing, but had to pay just $150 (including costs) instead of the $200 fine.

Well, good on her for being ballsy- apparently the judge described her as putting up a “robust defence”!

In fact, so  many of us in Wellington don’t have the luxury of having our trailers and other vehicles safely hidden away from sight in garages or up private driveways…So when does it all start to get a bit much?

Would it be perhaps be appropriate to give a warning when there is a recently lapsed warrant or registration for a vehicle parked outside the place where the  owner normally lives?

Auckland transport , the fines collecting arm of the Auckland council, revealed recently that it collected  $36.2 million of parking fines and other vehicle offences (warrants and registrations) in the financial year to 30 June  2012.

That was up from $20.5 million for the previous eight months, when Auckland Transport began business in November 2010.

Stuff reports that Wellington City Council made about $24 million from parking and infringement notices in the last financial year.

Of course we need some parking restrictions to ensure car parking spaces are shared around , and people can get into the city and shop. And in some cases where parking is under pressure it makes sense to have loading zones or residents-only car parks. But there does come a point where unfortunately it does look simply like revenue gathering for the sake of it… and that quite frankly isn’t what I think our Council parking services should be about.