Wellington.Scoop
The Wellington City Council today took the first, small step towards reducing the amount of on-street parking in the city.

With one dissenting vote, councillors agreed to release a draft of its proposed new Parking Policy – public consultation on the changes will then begin.

The draft has taken two years to prepare.

There’s an immense amount of detail in the proposed changes. It’s all here, for those who will be examining it before they tell the council what they think.

And that’s not all. A 2019/20 Parking Policy Review Discussion document and a Parking Background Information Report 2020 will be released as well.

The consultation process will be integrated with the council’s Planning for Growth consultation over March and April.

Councillors were today told about the response to an online questionnaire:

All 334 unique responses were analysed, which asked people to prioritise on-street parking space and consider how to manage parking supply and demand. The majority of respondents indicated that in both central city and residential areas, the Council should be prioritising short-term parking for visitors and people with disabilities and not to prioritise parking for commuters. There was also a preference for prioritising urban amenity and micro-mobility facilities, such as bike parking. A strong theme that appeared throughout the questionnaire responses was an overwhelming support for prioritising effective public transport to combat parking demand issues and reduce carbon and other emissions from transport.