Scrapping parking meters from Oamaru’s central business district would not only alleviate council concerns over faulty machines, it would help businesses in Lower Thames St, Waitaki district councillor Guy Percival says.
"Get rid of the things completely," he told the council’s heritage, environment and regulatory committee this week.
Council environmental services manager Jason Evered reported to the committee on Tuesday that after a period of unacceptable levels of faulty parking machines, "for the last few weeks, the parking machines have been working correctly with very few out of order".
Cr Hugh Perkins said the council was assured the machines were state of the art when installed."I’d be aghast if the current machines were past their use-by date," he said.
Mr Evered said the machines would depreciate in value until they reached "zero" in 2023.
"This does not necessarily mean they will have reached end of life and need replacing," he said.
"Throughout the life of the machines, parts are replaced or upgraded, the machines could still be used if council chose to and it was economic to con-tinue to use them."
For a number of weeks, about 10%, four or five, machines were out of service daily, he said.
However, over the last several weeks there had only been isolated issues with the machines, which were quickly repaired.
The committee agreed to look at future options for parking in the Oamaru central business district.
Waitaki Mayor Gary Kircher said "the reality is" the machines covered the cost of parking enforcement, and if there were no meters there would still be costs related to parking enforcement, which would be passed on to ratepayers.
