WELLINGTON City Council has breached a parking bylaw and fines issued at certain Pay and Display sites are not valid.

The District Court has ruled that due to the lack of signposting on The Terrace and Aurora Terrace in a Pay and Display area, tickets issued there will not incur a fine. The legality of other Pay and Display areas, including the busy parking zone of Marion Street, is now under question.

Two Wellingtonians, who amassed 15 parking tickets between them, took the council to court this week over the lack of signs.

Cormac McBride and Stephen Currington found a loophole in the parking law pertaining to street parking. The pair argued that fines were invalid where the parking area was not correctly signposted.

Judge SE Thomas said blue and white Pay and Display parking signs must be erected at the end of each roadway, and a sign on the Pay and Display machine itself is not sufficient warning as to the limits of the parking meter area.

Therefore McBride and Currington do not have to pay the fines they received which range from $12-$40, as the area was not clearly delineated. The signage for the Pay and Display machines was found to be in breach of the Regulation 123 of the city bylaws.

McBride, a Johnsonville resident who parks on The Terrace and Aurora Terrace on the days he does not take the train, says he took the matter to court to show that the council was not adhering to the law correctly, and as a matter of principle.

"I believe the council hasn’t done things correctly and the court judgement has shown that."

Wayne Tacon, the council’s parking services spokesperson, says the council does not agree that the signage causes confusion. The council plans to appeal the decision, he says.

"People expect to pay for parking in Wellington. I’m not saying that people agree with the price but I think people in Wellington and visitors know they need to pay for parking."

The council believes that signage is not required under the traffic regulations of 1976.

"Meters specifically don’t require signage. We believe that a Pay and Display machine is a parking meter, they practically carry out the same function.

"I struggle to see how a Pay and Display machine isn’t a parking meter. In that respect it isn’t an
issue with the vast majority of people who are paying for their parking," Tacon says.

The court ruled that a parking meter measures the "effluxion of time," a different function from a Pay and Display machine, which simply issues tickets for a certain time period.

A previous judgement in Auckland found that parking receipt dispensers are not the same as parking meters.