Police looking into damage to machines
POLICE are investigating intentional damage of Invercargill’s new parking meters.
At least 10 of the Invercargill City Council’s new parking machines had their screens, cards and coin readers defaced with paint.
Council strategic asset planning manager Russell Pearson said the council became aware of the incident early on Tuesday.
‘‘A number of our new parking kiosks had been vandalised. We began remedial works by 9am. As a result the kiosks are once again operational,’’ he said.
In December, the council spent $800,000 to retire its 750 ‘‘lollipop’’ coinoperated parking metres and installed 85 kiosks across the city centre.
Mr Russell said the incident was reported to the police who were investigating the matter.
The council was reviewing whether other repairs were required, but still did not know the cost.
‘‘We are hopeful of identifying the individuals responsible. We are disappointed with this vandalism, which will impact our ratepayers with unnecessary additional maintenance costs.’’
While some of the kiosks still appeared to have been damaged, they remained operational, he said.