1. Cars home
  2. Motoring Rules & Regulations

Ask an expert

liamg404
By liamg404 | AA Member | 2 Posts | 10 May 2017 at 12:49pm

I recently received a parking ticket in the mail from Wellington City Council due to apparently parking in a space for over the 120 minute time limit. There is a total of 4 parking spaces with a berm in the middle with a tree (2 parks on each side). The left hand set of parks had a pole with no sign on it. The right hand set of parks had a sign stating to check the machine for conditions. I believed that this sign was referring only to the right hand side parks (as it was separated by a berm) so therefore I parked in the left hand side believing there was no time limit. The sign was 20m up from my car, the ticket machine 15m. I have tried to dispute this with the council but they believe that the signage is legal and compliant. I have noticed now that they have completely removed the right hand set of parks and moved the sign to the left hand parks. This is clear that they realised it wasn't compliant and have tried to fix up their error.

I have viewed the NZTA TCD Manual and believe that Wellington Council did not meet its requirements as:
Signs relating to the restriction or prohibition of parking on a length of road must be installed:
• at the start and end of the length of the restriction (section of affected roadway)

liamg404
By liamg404 | AA Member | 2 Posts | 10 May 2017 at 12:55pm

I have added an image showing the park I was in with the pole to the left with no sign on it
http://tinypic.com/r/10xf0n7/9

and here is the image of the 2 parks, berm and 2 further parks (however the Council have now removed these parks, the arrow points to the paint marks still visible)
http://tinypic.com/r/jz89pl/9

Anon
By Anon | Community Member | 10 May 2017 at 2:44pm

I’m not sure the berm as you describe it is sufficient to interrupt the roadway and create a new parking zone as you suggest. However, the TCD manual also requires parking signs every 100m so its worth checking whether there was another sign within 100m. Either way, if you have appealed this unsuccessfully, you are entitled to notify Wellington council that you want to dispute this further, in which case they may choose to waive it, or refer it to the District Court to resolve. If they notify you that they are referring it to court, you can always offer to pay at that point if you don’t want to defend it in court.

More advice on disputing parking fines on our website here.