Free on-street parking in Tauranga's city centre has come to an end – and not everyone is happy about it.

Tauranga City Council announced earlier this week that from December 1 this year free on-street parking will cease in the city's 'core area” – namely the land between Harington St and Second Ave from Cameron Rd to The Strand and Tauranga Waterfront.

As part of the council's Parking Management Plan the free two-hour parking will change to $1 per hour for the first two hours, then $5 per hour after that from 8am-6pm Monday to Saturday.

Then from February 1, 2023, the on-street parking charges will change to $2 per hour for the first two hours.

The Weekend Sun hit the CBD streets to gauge public and retailer opinion on the move.

'I'm all for it but only if they do it across at the Mount,” says café owner Hamish Carter.

'I can understand that we can't make them [council] charge at shopping centres because that's private property, but if they sincerely want to revitalise downtown they need to make it equitable and charge at the Mount.”

Café and restaurant owner Hamish Carter.

The free two-hour parking was established in mid-2020 by council in response to Covid-19, but commission chair Anne Tolley says this no longer serves the purpose of a thriving city centre.

'At the moment, parking is being over-utilised by workers who tend to park in the area all day, at the expense of people visiting the city centre for retail or other short-term purposes,” says Anne.

Inner city worker Hamish Dean says he is for the changes but that it's a hassle.

CBD worker Hamish Dean.

'On a personal level it's an absolute pain,” says Hamish.

'Just the lack of free parking around the place is a hassle.

'We have to park way out of town and walk in, which is okay and I try to take the bus if possible.”

He adds: 'Another thing is the amount of carparks that have been taken out by all of the roadworks …there's just roadworks all over the place, which is a real hassle but it is what it is.”

Rebecca Bennet, who travels into the city from the Kaimai area for appointments and library visits, thinks taking away the free parking will move people out of the city.

'I thought they wanted more people to be here with their whole revitalisation that they're doing? Well they're getting rid of that if they're taking away free parking.”

Rebecca Bennett travels in from the Lower Kaimai area.

Rebecca says she will move her appointments elsewhere and have to use a different library. 'If you still have to pay to stop for five minutes to drop off your library book that's ridiculous.”

According to TCC, the staged changes around the city's parking have also been adopted to reduce carbon emissions, reduce traffic congestion and allow for more travel choices.

'Tauranga is on a journey from a car-oriented past to a future that supports a richer and more sustainable range of transport choices,” says TCC director of Transport Brendan Bisley.

Downtown retailer Aaron Brown says the 'carbon neutral guise is ridiculous” and 'whitewashes the climate issue”.

'I'm all for reducing carbon emissions and for the environment, but if you're really going to offset carbon emissions it's not by reducing parking in town,” says Aaron, who suggests council put solar panels on city buildings instead.

Knife Shop owner Aaron Brown.

'Overall, it's really unfortunate but at the same time it's hard to argue against…because too many workers are parking in the spots and that does happen, and that does reduce the amount of parking for customers,” says Aaron.

Jo Barnsdall from Mount Maunagui, who was shopping with her daughter, says she hadn't been to Tauranga CBD for a year.

Mount Maunganui resident Jo Barnsdall.

'I've just come here because the kids are dancing up at Baycourt. We're just looking around but normally we'd go to Bayfair, down the Mount or to The Lakes where it's free [parking] and has more shops,” says Jo.

'I don't really come over to Tauranga much because it's all paid parking and there's not really a lot here.”