No loose change for parking? No worries. Invercargill city could soon be saying goodbye to the traditional ‘Lollipop’ parking meters and welcoming in new ‘Pay by Plate’ parking. 

Cumbersome and outdated, coin parking meters are a thing of the past. Invercargill is one of the few cities in the country to use single headed parking meters and Invercargill City Council roading manager Russell Pearson says it’s time for un upgrade. 

At an ICC Infrastructural Services committee meeting yesterday, councillors discussed the new proposed parking method proposed by Mr Pearson. 

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Mr Pearson said the new parking meters would make paying for parking easier and would discourage people from parking in the same spot all day. 

His proposal is to replace all “ageing single head parking meters with multiple parking kiosks” and introduce just a single “Pay by Plate” zone for all on street metered parking spaces in Invercargill, except on Wood St. 

The technology would mean people could enter their number plate number into a nearby parking kiosk and pay for the amount of time that they spend in a parking space.  

The all-day parking would be based on a ‘stepped tariff’ method. There would be no time limit on parking, but the cost would incrementally increase the longer a vehicle is parked in an on-street space each day. 

“The idea is that you’ll park in an area and the longer you park the more it will cost,” said Mr Pearson. 

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The change is up for public consultation so the public will have the opportunity to provide feedback. 

Mr Pearson said a “zero rate” for the initial period may be considered, however this would need to be actively enforced to ensure people weren’t over-staying and parking in the same place all day. 

“We have to be careful of is that the enforcement is strong on those areas,” he said. 

Cr Crackett asked if the new technology would allow the council to alter the price of parking to draw people into the city when public events are on. 

“The technology allows us to vary the tariff as we see fit,” Mr Pearson said. 

Mr Pearson added the new system would need to be easy to use for people to want to use it, but said the upgrade was necessary to keep up with the changing times. 

“At the moment, the most regular comment I get from people is that I don’t have any coins in my pocket or in my car.” 

Public consultation begins in November.