If you’re wanting to avoid a fine in central Nelson you’re better off parking on Hardy St than Trafalgar St, new figures from the Nelson City Council reveal.
The Nelson Weekly asked the council for the top five streets for parking fines over the last year.
Nelson City Council received $618,571 in parking revenue from 12,442 tickets over the past financial-year.
Trafalgar St topped the list with 3400 tickets issued at a value of $188,837. However, it was Buxton Sq that received the most tickets with 3568.
Council communications manager Paul Shattock says that while Buxton Square was the area that had the most infringements issued, 3568 tickets, it was the value of the infringements on Trafalgar St that put it at the top of the list.
“For example, staying over the time limit (less than 30 minutes) is a $12 infringement, whereas parked with no WOF is $200,” he says. Despite the high total amount, it was actually a drop in revenue compared to the previous two years which came in at $714,470 for the 16/17 year and $832,849 for the 15/16 year.
Revenue has been declining since council introduced the ‘first hour free’ initiative in 2014.
Kelly McLeod has recently moved here from the West Coast and she is happy with the parking in Nelson.
“It’s adequate for now but it will have to be ready for the future. There are more people coming here, like me. The free hour is a good amount of time to be able to get stuff done.”
Moutere resident Errol Beattie is also happy with the current parking.
“Usually I’m just in for a short amount of time to go to the bank or something. It’s a great idea,” he says.