Hour free parking trial on

The Timaru District Council has fasttracked a trial project to double the time people can park on an area of Stafford St.

From today, parking between Church/ Strathallan Sts and George St will have a 60-minute limit, rather than 30. The rest of Stafford St is unchanged.

Councillors unanimously approved the six-month trial at a meeting yesterday.

Cr David Jack said the extension was a good idea.

‘‘We had a request from the CBD group, we want to encourage people into the CBD. If increasing the amount of parking helps, then I feel it is a good thing.

‘‘It’s worth giving it a go. It’s a work in progress,’’ Jack said.

Cr Steve Wills said he totally supported the resolution.

Cr Nigel Bowen added it was a ‘‘nice little Christmas present’’ for the CBD, but there needed to be a wider strategy in regards to developing the CBD.

‘‘It has to be a trial, it’s going to be a real hard one to measure. We need to bring all the stakeholders along in the journey. We need to look at the bigger picture,’’ Bowen said.

The council said the trial is in response to changes in retail patterns and community feedback gathered by the Timaru CBD group.

Retailer and community feedback will be gathered during the trial period to measure the effects of the change.

Ashley Harper, the council group manager infrastructure, said the trial could provide valuable information to feed into a wider review of parking in the CBD.

‘‘The CBD group has shown that there is community demand to look at how we provide parking in the CBD of Timaru.’’