New parking kiosks with a pay-by-plate system have now started appearing on Invercargill city streets.

The new meters are progressively replacing the old “lollipop” parking meters.

With colour and touch screens, the new meters now require users to input their vehicle registration plate number, when parking in a paid parking zone, and the time they plan to stay.

Payment can then be made with coin, card via Paywave, online or through the Pay My Park app.

Council Roading Manager Russell Pearson said this was an exciting move for the city that had been long requested by the community.

“The new meters are user-friendly, more reliable and similar to those in Dunedin and Queenstown, so many of our residents will be familiar with them already,” he said.

“We recognise that it’s time for change to our paid parking system and we’re really pleased to finally be able to offer different payment options and to have a more modern tool for our staff to work with.”

The kiosks are solar powered and use mobile technology to communicate with the parking team, so they’ll no longer need to chalk tyres, Mr Pearson said.

The paid parking fee structure will be changing to a tiered system with the new kiosks.

Currently parking is a flat fee of $1.50 per hour, with time limits in place. The new system is charged in 15-minute increments and gives you 30 minutes of free parking each day. It will cost $1 for a full hour, $3 for two hours, and $4 per hour after that.

Parking costs will be charged per day for the total number of hours you park.

On-street parking infringement costs will also change the council says.

Currently expired meter parking fines are set at $12. The new parking system means that infringements come under a separate offence, in which fines range from between $12 and $57, dependent on the paid time exceeded or if you have not entered your plate into the system.

CLICK HERE to find out more about Invercargill's new parking meters including how to download the parking app.