On street and council-owned parking buildings fees are set to increase in Christchurch.

On-street metered parking in Christchurch’s city centre will rise from $3.10 per hour to $4.50 an hour from 12 July an increase of 45.2%

Credit card transaction fees will be removed from all Council on-street parking meters.

Council Traffic Operations Manager Steffan Thomas said the council was increasing metered on-street parking fees to bring them more into line with Auckland, Wellington and Dunedin where the cost of on-street parking in the heart of the CDB was generally between $4 and $5 an hour.’’

Fees are also increasing at the two Council-owned parking buildings in the city centre.

Lichfield Street Carpark rate per hour will increase from $2.80 to $4.00, an increase of 42.9%

The hourly night-time rate will increase from $2.50 to $3.50.

The all day rate of $15 will remain unchanged.

At the Christchurch Art Gallery carpark, the parking fee will go up to $2 per half hour.

Central City Developer Antony Gough said the new parking fees now represent the true cost of parking costs in non council parking buildings.

“I could never understand why we were using rates to subsidise parking. On street parking should be the higher cost so we encourage off street parking. The actual cost of building an off street parking building is around $70,000 per space so at $4 per hour the return is not great.”

What does this mean for residents?

On Street Parking – waiver of time limit restrictions will increase from $145.00 to $210.00, an increase of 44.8%

On Street Parking – residential parking and residents exemption permits  – Moving from $60.00 to $100.00, an increase of 66.7% 

From Sunday 1 August, New Brighton’s hot salt water pools, will introduce peak pricing at weekend sessions, evening sessions from 5.30pm and during school and public holidays. These sessions will cost an extra $1.

Off-peak sessions and member pricing will remain the same.

In October some charges at Council-owned recreation and sport facilities will change slightly. For example, the cost of going for a swim will increase by 10 cents for a child, by 30 cents for an adult, and by 80 cents for a family of four.