Feilding Parking Restrictions
Watch this (parking) space!
Key dates are as follows:
March to May 2024: Information and education campaign about parking changes.
March to April 2024: Community consultation on the draft Long-Term Plan 2024 – 2034 to decide on the required funding arrangement for Stage 2 Monitoring and Enforcement.
March to April 2024: Installation of parking signage to identified areas in core of town centre.
30 June 2024: Education grace period for time limited parking infringements concludes.
Why are we doing this?
We’ve heard from the community loud and clear that there are lots of cars overstaying their welcome in the Feilding town centre. We want to try and make sure that parking spaces are freed up more often and that visitors to town can park easily while they do their shopping. In response, Council has made the decision to roll-out time limited parking in Feilding to uphold our vision for the future for a prosperous and vibrant town centre. The first step is installation of signage which will show which areas have time limits for parking.
Check out the map below for time limited areas:
What’s next?
We have taken all the feedback we've received so far and developed a two-stage implementation plan.
- Installation of time limited parking signage in the core of the town centre alongside an education campaign:
This includes three different time limits: 30mins, 60mins and 180mins. 30mins parking limits have been centred around key drop-in areas like pharmacies and the post-office. Longer stay areas have been located for shopping, seeing a movie or having a haircut.
Council will be monitoring the time limits alongside an education campaign. We will leave information on car windscreens on good parking behaviour for those we spot overstaying their welcome. No fines for time limited parking infringements will be issued before 30 June 2024.
- Monitoring and Enforcement of time limits via a Parking Officer, and issuing of fines for those who exceed advertised time limits.
- Council needs to decide on funding arrangements for Stage 2 of the proposal to monitor and enforce time limited parking. This is because the parking fines won’t be sufficient to fund the service, and the community have made it clear they do not want parking meters. As a consequence, the cost of the service will need to be funded via rates.
- Who covers the cost of the service via rates will be considered as part of the draft Long Term Plan 2024 – 2034 which will be consulted on with the community in March 2024. You can have your say on this during the consultation period.
- Enforcement of time limits is planned for weekdays between 9am and 3pm via electronic chalk booking equipment and ticketing software.
- The 3pm end time allows town centre employees to move their cars closer to their workplace before hours of darkness if required for safety reasons.
- Council will also check for expired registration and warrant of fitness as part of monitoring and enforcement.
Here’s some parking tips to think about
If you're planning on being in town for a while think about parking further away and walking into the centre:
The centre parks on Kimbolton Road won’t have time limits, and will allow for all day parking. Signage will be installed to indicate this.
Council owns three off-street car parks in the town centre – two on Eyre Street (behind Delish and Murrays), and one on Warwick Street. All less than 500m from the Clock Tower. You can park all day in these parks.
If you want to save money on fuel and maintenance on your car, try walking, cycling or taking the bus!
Walking has so many benefits for you, your car and you wallet. There is no time wasted on a walk, only time well spent!
- Walking into the centre of town helps us to make the area more vibrant and safe, with more people and less cars.
The Feilding Orbital Bus Service runs 10 times every weekday, and five times on a Saturday. It departs from Manchester Square and covers key destinations such as Manchester Street School, Feilding High School, Lethbridge Street, Feilding Health Care, Woodland Retirement Village, Feilding Intermediate and Countdown. Check out the Horizons website for more details: www.horizons.govt.nz/buses-transport/bus-routes-transport/301-feilding-orbiter
Council have a Walking and Cycling Strategy that was adopted in July 2020. It sets out strategic direction and opportunities for Council to encourage more walking and cycling within our district. Check it out here: www.mdc.govt.nz/documents/strategies/walking-and-cycling-strategy
The more the merrier - carpooling works wonders when everyone needs to find a park.
If you're meeting someone for coffee in one of the many amazing coffee shops in Feilding, arriving in the same car increases the available parks for everyone else.
Have a chat with other people at work and see if anyone lives close by for carpooling.