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Parking in Hastings DistrictTe whakatū waka ki te rohe o Heretaunga

Parking regulations aim to ensure cars are parked safely and considerately, as well as making sure everyone has a fair chance of getting a car park in the main retail areas.

Parking in Hastings District

In the busiest areas of the district, parking is subject to time limits and parking fees. These vary and are determined according to the distance the parking is from the main shopping area.

Across the district, Council responds to complaints about abandoned vehicles, illegally parked vehicles, and safety issues related to parked vehicles; for example vehicles parked over driveways or fire hydrants. 

Council is not authorised to deal with issues on private property or in private car parks (such as supermarkets).

For details of off-street, on-street and dedicated parking areas in central Hastings and Havelock North see the Parking Guide.

For information on mobility parking see the Mobility parking page.

For information on leased parking see the Leased Parking page.

Paying for parking

Where payment is required for parking you can pay with the Pay by Plate machines by putting a coin in the machine, or using Paywave, with ParkEasy by scanning the QR code, or you can use a mobile phone app ParkMate.

Parking FAQs

Parking is a key part of our public transport and road network.

Parking and compliance enforcement doesn’t come free and Hastings city centre charges are equivalent to most other cities in Aotearoa. Even unmetered carparks that may seem free come at a cost to the ratepayer. Some of the costs related to city centre parking relate to parking space provision (land and pavement costs), street cleaning, street maintenance and other services related to parking such as parking officers.

Hastings city centre parking is funded by a pay-as-you-go (user-pays) model. This model is overwhelmingly used across the country (except for Havelock North). Some of the reasons it is popular are:

  • It means that people who choose to walk, cycle or take public transport, or don’t visit the city centre as often, aren’t subsidising those who choose to drive and park.
  • It also means ratepaying residents aren’t subsidising non-rate-paying visitors from outside of the district.

Parking fees help pay for the land, pavement, street cleaning, maintenance and other services related to parking.

Hastings city centre parking charges will also help fund Council’s Laneway Development Plan. This plan includes seven laneway developments that will help meet our city centre vitality objectives such as inner city housing and increased public parking with direct links to the core retail and hospitality precincts on Heretaunga Street.

The Queen Street West 200 block is the first of these laneways, costing about $2 million.

Parking officers patrol parking meters, time zones and other traffic violations to ensure parking turnover, making it fair for all users.

Parking turnover is important to ensure our retail and hospitality businesses have a high enough customer turnover, which helps improve our economic development.

Parking time limits and fees also prevent people parking in one spot all day. Regular turnover reduces traffic congestion (from people driving around in circles looking for a parking spot) and reduces carbon emissions as a result.

Recent government legislation means Council’s District Plan can no longer set minimum car parking numbers for developments within city centres. This means developers of commercial or residential buildings no longer have to provide a certain number of allocated parking for customers or residents. The responsibility to provide adequate parking falls on Council, and parking charges help to fund development of parking solutions as our city centre and driver demand for parking grows.

Due to requests from the business community, and because it fitted with Council’s Vibrancy Plan 2015, we ran a free parking pilot in Hastings central city from November 2015 to February 2016. This was further extended through to June 2017.

Council commissioned consultancy Traffic Design Group to run parking occupancy surveys to measure the success of the trial. MarketView, a consumer spending research company, also reviewed the effects of the trial.

Traffic Design Group’s evaluation report about the trial was inconclusive about any positive effects to Hastings’ retail activity or vibrancy. It found there was some increased retail spend over the trial period, however there was no evidence this was directly linked to the trial, and could be due to macroeconomic factors such as lower interest rates and high employment levels.

The evaluation of the trial also showed the loss of parking revenue created an affordability problem for Council and would result in an increase in rates to offset the loss. The rates forecast for 2017/18 was 0.9% higher if free parking was retained.

Based on the evaluation, we included a question in our 2017/18 Draft Annual Plan consultation which asked residents whether they preferred:

  1. Pay-as-you-go model (the person using the park pays via parking meters)
  2. An annual charge on your rates (so every household pays regardless of whether they use the parking spots).

We received almost 3,000 responses to the question, with 68% preferring the pay-as-you-go model, as they thought it was fairer. Key themes included:

  • User-pays is fairer to people who don’t go into the city much or who live rurally and visit Napier city instead
  • User-pays means residents don’t have to subsidise out of towners/visitors who aren’t from Hastings district
  • Unmetered parking would be filled by businesses whose staff use it, leaving not enough carparks for customers
  • Residents shouldn’t have to pay to subsidise parking to assist businesses.

Read more here

Pay parking fines

Parking fines are generally required to be paid within 28 days. If your parking fine is not paid within 28 days of the ticket being issued, the registered owner of the vehicle will receive a reminder notice in the post. If the fine is not paid within 28 days of the reminder being issued, it will be lodged with the Courts. The fine, plus an administration cost, will then need to be paid directly to the Court (not to Council).

If you can't pay your fine before the due date, ask for the Parking Department at the Council for advice.

Discounts are available if you pay your ticket within 7 days, but only if stated on your ticket.

For more on parking tickets, including other ways to pay and the process for disputing parking tickets, see the Parking tickets page.

Pay your parking fine online

Parking complaints

If you find a vehicle abandoned outside your property or wish to bring illegal parking to our attention please complete the parking complaints form below, or phone Council.

Online Parking Complaints Form

Havelock North parking study

Hastings District Council has commissioned parking surveys in Havelock North to assess whether the current car parking provisions are meeting people's needs. The 2018 report is available from the 'related documents' section.

Parking Map

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