Latest news with #parkingmeters
RNZ News
7 days ago
- Business
- RNZ News
Lower Hutt parking meters going cashless due to theft and vandalism
Parking meters in Lower Hutt will all be made cashless. (File photo) Photo: RNZ / Richard Tindiller Parking meters in Lower Hutt will all become cashless due to the cost of ongoing theft and vandalism, the mayor says. Since the start of 2025, 30 parking meters in Lower Hutt had been intentionally damaged or destroyed, with Petone especially hard hit. The council said the total stolen amounted to $2975. But replacing just one vandalised meter costs $2500-$7000 and Hutt City Council has spent $114,000 replacing vandalised meters so far this year. Mayor Campbell Barry told Morning Report making the parking meters cashless was not something the council wanted to do. "We know it will have an impact on those who choose to use coins to pay for their parking," he said. Mayor Campbell Barry said the council did not want to have to make the meters cashless. (File photo) Photo: Supplied / Hutt City Council / Elias Rodriguez "But we really have no choice, particularly under some of the financial constraints that we have at the moment." Barry said they were working with organisations that would be able to assist some customers in the community, such as the elderly, who only used coins and did not have paywave or parking apps on their phone. Around 96 of Council's 181 parking meters across Lower Hutt still accept cash. As meters have been vandalised, they have been replaced with cashless meters, but council would now move to proactively block off coin payments at all meters to prevent further vandalism. Conversion to card-only payments will begin on Monday August 18 and was expected to be completed within two weeks. Other councils have made similar moves away from cash meters in recent years, and meters in Porirua are now cashless. Justin Roberts Head of Environmental Protection at Hutt City Council said the damage done far outweighed the small amount of cash stolen per meter. "It's ratepayers who end up footing the bill, and the result is frustration for drivers and added pressure on businesses," he said. "Most people are very comfortable with using a card at meters or paying via the PayMyPark app, but we understand this change will be an adjustment for some people." Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
CTV News
25-07-2025
- CTV News
13 parking meters stolen in uptown Saint John this month: police
A sign for the Saint John Police Force is pictured on April 10, 2025. (CTV Atlantic/Avery MacRae) The Saint John Police Force is investigating the theft of 13 parking meters in the uptown core of the city in the last month. Police say Irving Security found several 'old style' parking meters on July 14. Officers later determined five meters had been removed from three different areas in uptown Saint John. The City of Saint John then reported that eight more parking meters were stolen from the uptown area on the weekend of July 18 and 19. So far, five meters have been recovered. Anyone with information on the incident is asked to call police at 506-648-3333, or anonymously contact Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477. For more New Brunswick news, visit our dedicated provincial page.
CBC
14-06-2025
- CBC
'Unacceptable': Some of Windsor's parking meters are wrong — but people are still getting tickets
Social Sharing Syed Hassan says he doesn't like to complain much. But when his wife told him she got a parking ticket on Thursday night, he knew he needed to speak out. The parking meter on Wyandotte Street West said enforcement hours ended at 6 p.m. Yet when his wife returned to her car after a class at the University of Windsor, she and several other students had $30 tickets on their windshields. Hers had been issued at 6:17 p.m. "I was just kind of upset that they were doing that to students, that's what really got me," he said. "I have a very soft spot for students. And I remember being very broke." Hassan said he felt like the students were targeted because they'd all be in night classes. "That's unacceptable. Taking advantage of people," he said. Windsor city council approved changes to parking fees and hours of enforcement earlier this year. Fees were set to rise from $2 an hour to $2.25, effective June 1, and hours of enforcement were extended by an hour to 7 p.m. A spokesperson for the city said in an initial statement Friday that it had previously issued warnings to people who parked without paying between 6 p.m. and 7 p.m., and has handed out 53 tickets during those hours since Tuesday. Pressed on why people were getting tickets at meters with the wrong times listed, the city said that "all 1,440 parking meters across the city have been individually updated to reflect the new pricing and enforcement hours. "While every effort has been made to ensure accuracy, there may be a small number of meters that were inadvertently missed," spokesperson Michael Janisse wrote by email. But CBC checked out parking meters near the university and downtown, and didn't see any with the updated enforcement hours. Downtown Coun. Renaldo Agostino told CBC that people who receive a ticket at a meter that hasn't been updated should "just send it in, call 311." "The city's willing to work with everybody on this one," he said. Agostino maintains that all the meters still displaying the old enforcement hours are "all getting transitioned." "All that'll be fixed," he said. "You'll see stickers over things; you'll see information there. You may see some cover ups, but you're going to see it." But Hassan says when he called 311 he was told to formally dispute the ticket using the process described on the back. "311's like, 'We have no clue. There is no such thing. Nobody has told us to refund all the tickets,'" Hassan said. Janisse confirmed that people who get tickets in these scenarios will have to go through the formal dispute process. "In cases where a discrepancy exists, and the meter signage was not updated, the complaint resolution process would see the ticket cancelled," he said, adding that residents should report meters that haven't been updated to 311. But Hassan said the city made the mistake, so it should own up to it: He says it shouldn't be on residents who were following the posted rules to have to take time to go through the dispute process. "Obviously there's a certain level of incompetence I expect from every organization, whether government or private," he said. "The problem is when you find out that you made a mistake, instead of giving people the run around, like I was told to call 311 and then I called 311 and they're telling me, 'I have no idea what you're talking about. You have to go through the dispute process.' That is where my problem lies." At the end of the day, Hassan said, the city just needs to put stickers with the new enforcement hours on the meters. "It's the simplest thing," he said. "They don't have to go make a huge apology to anybody. They just have to go to all their meters and update them."
CBC
22-05-2025
- Business
- CBC
Downtown Winnipeg councillors worry about loss of parking meters
Two downtown city councillors say a city plan to remove all parking meters this summer, and instead rely mainly on a mobile app for payment, could leave some people who lack smartphones without a way to pay for street parking.
CBC
21-05-2025
- Automotive
- CBC
Winnipeg removing city parking meters, encourages drivers to download app
Winnipeg's mayor says the city will remove all parking meters this summer as the machines, which use outdated technology, reach the end of their useful life. In their place, drivers will have to use a mobile app or get prepaid booklets to pay for street parking, the city says.
