I went downtown Tauranga on Saturday morning and discovered that parking is now 'no fee” on Saturdays, Sundays and Public Holidays only to find on my return that someone was getting a ticket as they had parked more than an hour. The meter has a sign that showed the weekday hours and fees then below that, in brackets, 'Saturdays, Sundays and Public Holidays- No Fee”, close brackets. Below that (not in brackets) was the words 'P60”. I thought no fee meant no fee. This is deceptive and misleading.
Are Saturday afternoons, Sundays and Public Holidays, now no longer free after the allocated time on the sign? Does this mean that when I go to the movies in the evening I now have to go and put money in the meter after the allotted free time or do I have to move my car?
Downtown Tauranga should be free like all the other shopping centres in our area. The retailers downtown should be in the same playing field as their competitors.
What the council should do is encourage people to go downtown Tauranga, not dissuade them – we need to hold onto our town centre, not just for the profit of the retailers. Changing the signs so they make more sense and are actually grammatically correct (brackets mean that what is said inside the brackets is apart from the rest of the paragraph) is not the answer– just make weekends and public holidays free.

Elaine Comyn, Te Puna.

TCC Responds
It is free to park in the city centre on Saturdays and Sunday. This includes the two parking buildings. However, the time restrictions for on street parking on Saturdays still apply and will be enforced. (The time restrictions are enforced with the support of Downtown Tauranga, the organisation that represents city centre businesses.)
On each pay and display machine there is a sticker above the screen that clearly states this information. Council advises people parking in the city centre in the weekends to check the parking time limit signage on the street and on the pay and display machines when they park their cars.
Parking in the parking buildings is the best option for people wanting to avoid the time restrictions - there is free all day parking on Saturdays and no time restrictions.