The District Court at Tauranga has ruled a section of Tauranga City Council's Traffic and Parking Bylaw to be unenforceable.

In a case brought before Judge Paul Mabey QC, the council's parking bylaw prohibiting local businesses from parking sign-written vehicles was deemed ‘unreasonable' and ‘too broad'.

Local technology service provider Geeks on Wheels took on the council after receiving nine successive parking infringement notices in early 2016.

The tickets were issued in Tauranga suburbs for the sole reason of parking vehicles displaying sign-writing, which the council has attempted to outlaw through a bylaw prohibiting parking for the purpose of advertising.

Geeks on Wheels CEO Matthew Carr-Gomm says they thought the parking bylaw was ‘silly, as it served no useful purpose'.

'What exactly were we meant to do when our vehicles were attending a job, or weren't required? The council themselves were also in breach of their own ridiculous rules by sign-writing their fleet of 93 vehicles.”

Judge Mabey agreed in his judgement that the purpose of the bylaw was not that which parliament had authorised. He awarded Geeks on Wheels $5000 in costs.

Since the Traffic and Parking Bylaw was introduced in 2012, at least 348 parking tickets have been issued for sign-writing breaches, which could now potentially be challenged in court.

An information request to Tauranga City Council also reveals they spent $24,931 of ratepayers' money on legal fees to pursue $360 of parking fines from Geeks on Wheels.

'Despite trying to appeal directly to the mayor for common sense, the council remained intransigent, wasting a huge amount of time and money chasing these fines,” says Matthew.

'Surely there are more pressing issues the council should be directing resources to?”

He believes council should be doing more to help local businesses, not hinder them.

'Businesses like ours provide many benefits to the Tauranga region, including providing jobs for young people.”

SunLive approached Tauranga City Council for comment, but TCC customer services manager Margaret Batchelar says they cannot comment on the matter during a potential appeal period.

'We will provide comment in due course.”