Public to be consulted about bylaw changes
The Invercargill City Council will consult the public on planned changes to its flawed parking bylaw.
The move is fallout from a successful legal challenge to the validity of $40 fines issued on the basis that people had failed to activate parking kiosks as required – by entering their licence plate number – to receive an initial 30 minutes free parking.
When two men independently challenged the validity of their tickets, citing unclear wording on the kiosks, the council did clarify the wording, but nevertheless insisted the pair pay up. Melvin Butler appealed his ticket to the Invercargill District Court in February, when presiding justices of the peace ruled the ticket invalid on other grounds raised by his lawyer Kristy Rusher – that the council’s parking bylaw failed to specify any requirement to activate a parking meter.
The council’s environmental services manager Gillian Cavanagh said on Friday that it was working through amendments to the bylaw to ensure parking kiosks, including the use of the QR code and PayMyPark app, were being activated correctly at all times.
After a period of public consultation, the proposed changes were planned to be presented to councillors on July 30, with agreed new changes to come into effect the following day. The council has since dropped its action against the other complainant, Paul Hutchinson, who also sought an apology to himself and others who had paid such fines in the past.
The council did not directly answer questions about whether it would apologise, or had, other than to say that staff had met with Hutchinson “to discuss the previous concerns he had raised’’.
Hutchinson, from Colac Bay, confirmed on Friday that a representative had driven out to meet him in Riverton, had been friendly, upfront, and apologised – and he bought me a beer’’. For the record, Hutchinson added, the staffer had only a Coke himself.
Meanwhile, Butler said he had not received any apology, and emphasised he still believed that fines should not have been collected from others who had simply paid up.