Southlanders dodge paying parking tickets

Southlanders appear to have a history of not paying parking tickets with more than half of the tickets issued by the Invercargill City Council being referred to court.

Data released under an Official Information Act found that less than a third of parking tickets that were issued by the city council in 2019 up until November were paid for.

Of the $658,011 in parking tickets that had been issued, $347,014 worth ended up as court referrals.

In total, 18,083 tickets were issued last year up until November.

In 2018, there were $972,488 worth of parking tickets issued and $369,202 resulted in a court referral.

Southlanders had a history of not paying tickets with $468,288 referred to court in 2017, $719,351 in 2016 and $484,871 in 2015.

When a ticket is lodged in court by the council a $30 fee is added and also needs to be paid by the defendant.

Data in 2017 showed that there was $761,035 worth of tickets issued, in 2016, $1,251,799 and in 2015, $1,075,022.

City council environmental health team leader Betty Holden said the decline in tickets issued in 2019 to November 2019 came down to the fact there were road works on Don, Dee and Kelvin streets, as well as staff resources.

At residential property call outs, Invercargill parking officers now had to go out in pairs in case of any safety issues, Holden said.

Data release under the Official Information Act from the Gore District Council showed a decrease in parking tickets.

Data showed that the top five infringement types were expired meter, excess time, no car warrant or registration and parking on the wrong side of the road.

The number of parking tickets that had been issued were 1496 in 2015 compared with 851 to November in 2019.

However, the number of tickets that hadn’t been paid were 246 in 2015 and 220 to November in 2019.

Gore District Council general manager regular and community services Dr Ian Davidson-Watts said its method to talk to people who exceeded time limits had been successful, and more of the community had started to take parking sign restrictions seriously.