Invercargill parking wardens are facing abuse on the back of rising parking fines approved by central government.
Last October, infringement costs rose by an average of 70% for overstaying or parking inconsiderately at council-controlled parking spaces.
The jump in fees boosted revenue but also led to some unsavoury behaviour from the public, council manager consenting and environment Jonathan Shaw indicated.
“Since the decision to increase parking infringement fees was made by central government, our compliance officers have noticed some pushback from members of the public, including several abusive incidents,” Shaw said.
There were only a small number of negative interactions overall, he said, but the council wanted to emphasise that abusive and threatening behaviour was not acceptable.
The council’s preference was for voluntary compliance, Shaw said.
“Ideally, there would be no revenue from parking infringements because everyone would comply with the parking rules.”
Following the October change, the minimum fine for overstaying jumped from $12 to $20.
At the upper end, those who overstayed by more than six hours began paying $97 instead of $57.
The increase was reflected in figures provided by the council which showed more than $1.14 million was collected in fees from October 2024 to June 2025, compared to just over $650,000 for the same period the year before.
The council issued 16,504 infringements from October 2024 to June 2025, compared to 12,830 from October 2023 to June 2024.
A contributing factor was the council not issuing infringements for those who failed to activate the kiosk for 30 minutes of free parking between February 2024 and June 2024 , while it addressed “challenges” with its bylaw.
That year, a company successfully challenged a $40 fine because of a loophole.
The Government introduced inflation-based increase to the parking fees to improve compliance.
“Parking infringement fees have not been updated in two decades, making councils’ role in managing public parking increasingly difficult,” Local Government Minister Simeon Brown said at the time.
LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air
