Pay and dismay for Wellingtonians

Wellington motorists are the most likely to be stung by parking wardens, with tickets they issue amounting to a $9.2 million annual cash cow.

Ticket revenue might have cracked $10 million but for high fuel prices, which the city council blames for deterring motorists from the cbd and cutting its take by at least $1 million.

The $9.2 million taken in the year to June 2008 is more than in Auckland City. The Dominion Post obtained the figure under the Official Information Act.

Parking wardens handed out 248,040 tickets. Just 7780 were waived, meaning fewer than one ticket in every 30 issued is successfully challenged. The average cost of a ticket is $38.55.

Christchurch residents paid the most nearly $5 million from 78,758 tickets issued and paid. Auckland City made more than $8 million from about 400,000 tickets issued.

A council spokesman defended the capital's strict parking enforcement, saying the main motivation was to "turn over" parking spots downtown.

"Our prime motivation ... is to discourage motorists from unfairly lingering in parking spaces," infrastructure director Stavros Michael said.

"We want to keep parking spaces turning over so they are available for shoppers and other people who want to do business in the cbd."

Wellington motorists spoken to by The Dominion Post were unsurprised by the city's ranking as the toughest on illegal parkers.

One woman said the parking wardens were vultures. "I've seen them just hover waiting for the tickets to expire. I understand they have to keep people moving on, but their attitude doesn't really fit with `Absolutely Positively Wellington'."

Angus Campbell, from Whitby, had received several tickets over the years and found the wardens inflexible.

"Even on Christmas Eve they were out in force, which isn't exactly the Christmas spirit," he said.

Parking wardens are no strangers to abuse in 2007, there were 55 complaints of abuse, including one warden being chased by a person on a forklift and another having an imitation firearm pulled on him.

Hutt City Council stung about 33,000 people with parking tickets in the past year and Porirua handed out 3400.

Wellington City Council issued 17,000 fewer tickets, reducing revenue by more than $1 million. Mr Michael said the drop could be attributed to the higher fuel costs till the middle of last year.

That was estimated to have reduced traffic flows around the city by up to 10 per cent, he said.

"It's still too early to say whether the trend is reversing and whether the drop in fuel prices in recent months is being cancelled out by the general economic downturn in terms of its effect on traffic volumes and ticketing numbers."

- © Fairfax NZ News