Parkers caught by flawed bylaw to be refunded
The Invercargill City Council is looking to recompense parkers stung by $40 fines under its flawed parking bylaw.
The move drew approval from councillors at an infrastructure committee meeting on Tuesday.
No information was provided on the estimated numbers or costs involved, but the council’s chief risk officer, Andrew Cameron, said staff would go through a process of identifying people who had paid fines.
The council has also withdrawn unprocessed infringement notices.
The decision was announced as councillors at the meeting considered a new parking bylaw, which they have approved to go out to consultation.
The developments are the result of a successful court challenge by Melvin Butler and Paul Hutchinson. The Southland pair decided to fight the fines they were issued for failing to activate parking kiosks as required – by entering their licence plate number – to receive an initial 30 minutes’ free parking in central Invercargill.
Both men contended the wording on the kiosks had been unclear.
However, at a hearing in the Invercargill District Court on February 20, justices of the peace Sharron Ryan and Craig Rodgers ruled that Butler’s ticket was invalid on separate grounds.
In doing so, they accepted the argument raised by his lawyer, Kristy Rusher, that the council’s parking bylaw had failed to specify any requirement to activate a parking meter.
On Tuesday, Cameron told councillors that not only had unprocessed fines been waived, but staff had also “formed the view that if we were found to be wrong, we should refund’’ people who had already paid under the flawed system.
Councillor Grant Dermody said he still wanted more information on what the council had learnt.
“We’ve made a massive error in how we rolled out the parking meters,’’ he said.
Councillor Ian Pottinger, who chairs the infrastructure committee, said in response that the adjective “massive’’ was harsh, given the issue involved wording that was “a bit ambiguous’’.
Butler was delighted by the announcement.
“That’s the best news,’’ he said. “It’s about time they did the right thing by the community.’’
Hutchinson agreed.
“It’s just a pity they didn’t have all their ducks in a row in the first place, and it came to this – an unfortunate, serious waste of people’s time,’’ he said.