Parking Information

Response

Sent: Monday, 14 September 2026 4:10 pm

Subject: Parking Information

I refer to your Official Information request of 17 August 2026 for information regarding Parking.

Question:

Mandatory number plate registration for the free first hour

Please identify the exact consultation document, page and paragraph where the public were advised that:

• motorists would be required to register their vehicle number plate in order to receive the free first hour in Zone 1;

• the registration would need to occur within a specified period after parking; and

• failure to register could result in an infringement even where the vehicle had otherwise remained within the free parking period.

If this specific requirement was not included in the public consultation material, please confirm this.

Answer:

No, the above points were not part of the consultation. The above came into effect as a result of some of the consultation provided. Feedback from the consultation highlighted improvements could be made around enforcement and the above was implemented as an operation decision in response.

Question:

Final parking fees and tariffs

Please confirm whether the final Zone 1 and Zone 2 fee structure endorsed by Council on 20 May 2026 was available to the 547 submitters before consultation closed on 13 February 2026.

In particular, please confirm whether submitters had been provided with the proposed:

1. first 60 minutes free in Zone 1.
2. requirement to register a number plate to claim that free hour.
3. once-per-day limitation on the free hour.
4. subsequent hourly charges in Zone 1.
5. Zone 2 parking charges.
6. If these details were not finalised or provided during consultation, please confirm when each of these elements was first formally proposed.

Answer:

For the sub questions 1 - 3: the above were introduced 1 July 2026, which was after consultation.

For the sub questions 4 - 5: these were endorsed by Council.

For the sub question 6: No, the above information was not provided to submitters. Council does not have to consult for fee changes, however please note that for most customers (majority do not exceed 1 hour parking) there were no material changes to the fee structure other than introducing Permits.

Question:

Breakdown of the 547 submissions

My original request asked for a breakdown showing:

• how many supported the changes;

• how many opposed the changes; and

• how many supported only some parts of the changes.

The response provided refers me to the overall submission summary but does not appear to provide the requested breakdown of submitters who supported only some aspects of the proposals.

Please provide this information if Council holds it.

If Council does not hold such a breakdown, please confirm this.

Answer:

In the report to Council on March 25, 2026 on the Proposed Traffic Bylaw 2026, the Parking Policy and the Parking Guidelines quantitative breakdowns were provided to council on the support for each document this included those who supported and disapproved of the changes. The engagement process that ran from December 2025 through February 2026 were specifically on the proposed changes associated with those regulatory documents listed above. The engagement was not concerned with operational or specific zoning changes or other decisions that came later in the development of the parking process.

Here are the statistics that were provided in the report:

• 84.6% of the submissions approved of the changes to the Proposed Traffic Bylaw 2026 (15.4% disapproved of the changes to the Bylaw)
• 80.59% of the submissions approved of the changes to the Proposed Parking Policy 2026 (19.41% disapproved of the changes to the Policy)
• 85.49% of the submissions approved of the improvements to the parking system (14.51% disapproved of the changes to the Guidelines)

The submission survey allowed submitters to write open-ended responses to several questions. There were many submitters who approved of the changes in the qualitative questions and then provided negative feedback on the parking system in written questions. There was no analysis done to map out the exact number of submitters who had ‘mixed feedback’ or who only supported some parts of the changes from the qualitative questions and the written feedback.

The overwhelming majority of submissions had written responses had content that were not related to the Traffic Bylaw 2026, Parking Policy 2026 or the Parking Guidelines. As such though these comments were related to the previous i-Park system parking system and its operation it could not directly inform if they ‘opposed in part’ the changes to the regulatory documents. Instead, an analysis of themes was provided detailing concerns and comments raised from submitters that were not related to the Policy, Bylaw or Guidance document.

Question:

Meaning of the 85.49% support figure

Council's March 2026 report records that 85.49% of respondents approved of "improvements to the parking system".

Please provide any document, analysis, staff advice or methodology showing whether Council considered this figure to represent support for:

• improvements to the parking system generally; or
• the specific parking fees, zones, free-parking conditions and number plate registration requirements subsequently implemented from 1 July 2026.

Answer:

The consultation with the community that ran from December 2025 to February 2026 was concerned with the Proposed Traffic Bylaw, Proposed Parking Policy and Proposed Parking Management Guidelines.

Parking Fees: Within the proposed documents there were several clauses that enabled Council staff to modify the parking fees associated with the change, the proposed (and now adopted/operative) documents allowed Council to modify parking fees once the operational details were known. This enabled future change to parking system in line with the regulatory framework which was consulted.

Number Plate Registration: The traffic bylaw clarified that a user needed to register their vehicle or be subject to a fine. This was one of the proposed changes as part of the regulatory document consultation. Further, on the adoption of the Traffic Bylaw 2026 Council allowed the Chief Executive to make minor changes to improve the Bylaw. As a result, the chief executive, alongside staff, made minor amendments to improve clarity associated with the topic of number plate registration. As part of the notification of the Traffic Bylaw 2026 staff notified the community of the minor changes to the Bylaw.

The remaining operational details of the parking system where not included as part of that consultation. The consultation was specific to the regulatory documents, as required by the Land Transport Act 1988 and the Local Government Act 2002. Operational decisions regarding how the system would work in practice to give effect to the revised bylaw, policy and guidelines were subsequently made, as is deemed appropriate.

Question:

Infringements issued since 1 July 2026

Please provide, for the period from 1 July 2026 to the most recent date available:

1. the total number of parking infringements issued in the Rotorua CBD
2. the total value of those infringements
3. a breakdown by infringement reason/offence type
4. the number of infringements relating to failure to activate or register a parking session
5. the number of those infringements issued in Zone 1
6. if recorded, the number of motorists who were otherwise within their first free hour when the infringement was issued
7. the number of infringement appeals or objections received
8. the number of infringements cancelled or waived following an appeal
9. the main reasons for cancellation or waiver
10. if Council does not record whether a vehicle was still within what would otherwise have been its free first hour, please confirm this.

Answer:

Please note that the data is for the time frame 1 July 2026 to 21 August 2026.

1. 2884 as per Infringement Numbers spreadsheet HERE.
2. $351,136.00 as per the above Infringement Numbers spreadsheet.
3. Please see the above Infringement Numbers spreadsheet.
4. P575 Filed to correctly activate a parking meter for the space occupied - 820 as per the above Infringement Numbers spreadsheet.
5. Council currently does not collect the date for infringements that is differentiated between zones. However, Council can provide you with the locations of the P575 issued.

Please note that that the variance between the number of P545 issued (820 and 823) is due to 3 infringements being reissued.

6. Council is unable to record/determine the above information, due to not knowing exactly when the motorist arrived if they have not activated the meter/app.

7. 292

8. 240

9. Warning given.

10.Council is unable to record/determine the above request, due to not knowing exactly when the motorist arrived if they have not activated the meter/app.

Question:

Consultation concerns about free parking and operational detail

Council's own submission analysis records significant feedback relating to free parking, technology, enforcement, accessibility and a lack of clarity regarding the operational details of the proposed changes.

Please provide any staff report, briefing, analysis or advice prepared between the close of consultation and the 20 May 2026 Council meeting showing how those concerns were taken into account when determining the final fees, layout and registration requirements.

Answer:

The Parking Consultation “Parking Changes on the Way” asked the following question “Do you agree or disagree with the proposed improvements to the inner-city parking system?” This was a broad question to gauge overall sentiment of approval for the Proposed Traffic Bylaw 2026, Proposed Parking Policy 2026 and the Proposed Parking Management Guidelines. No specific questions or information were provided on parking fees, zoning changes, free-parking information or number plate registration. The full list of the consultation questions are (excluding the questions about personal details like name, email address, etc):

• What is your connection to inner-city parking?
• Do you agree or disagree with proposed amendments to the The Performance Based Parking Management Practices – Policy?
• Do you agree or disagree with proposed amendments to the Traffic Bylaw 2025?
• Do you agree or disagree with the proposed improvements to the inner-city parking- system?
  • Can you explain further?
• Should Rotorua Lakes Council:
  • Keep the current number of coin-accepting machines?
  • Remove the coin payment option in favour of other payment methods?
  • Reduce the number of coin-accepting machines to areas where coins are most frequently used?
• Is there any other feedback that you would like to share with us?
• Would you like the opportunity to provide further feedback on operational details?
• Do you wish to present your submission publicly in front of elected members at a hearing?

The above results were subsequently verbally discussed internally as they provided a useful gauge for Council to determine whether we had a solid understanding of the common pain points for the community, and the general nature of any further suggestions made. Key themes were discussed in a subsequent report to Council.

Please find an update to submitters document after the consultation finished HERE.