City to lose $430,000 and 63 car parks

The squeeze on central city parking has worsened with 63 spaces lost after the closure of Wellington Central Library complex because of earthquake concerns.

The Civic Square car park on Harris St, which sits underneath the library, brought in about $430,000 worth of revenue for Wellington City Council last year, with its loss unaccounted for in the council’s budget.

A loss of the cashflow was something that chief operating officer Barbara McKerrow said would be closely monitored.

However, Wellington Chamber of Commerce chief executive John Milford said an urgent stocktake of CBD parking was needed to grasp capacity and accessibility issues.

‘‘Clearly while the car park is out of action this revenue will not be collected, but this has not been reflected in the council’s budgets at this stage,’’ McKerrow said.

‘‘We are still working through the implications of the impact of the library closing and are busy working through the options around providing alternative services. All this will be considered as part of the work that will be done over the coming months as we investigate options for the central library building.’’

The car park was the only council-owned central city car park. Now Wellingtonians will need to use on-street parking and the private car parks in Hunter and Bond streets.

‘‘In the immediate vicinity, there are a number of alternative parking options,’’ McKerrow said.

There are 3200 metered, onstreet car parks in the city.