Western Bay of Plenty District Council is introducing a vehicle-mounted camera to monitor and enforce parking restrictions in Te Puke.

The use of licence plate recognition (LPR) camera technology was approved as part of the council’s 2025-26 Annual Plan.

The decision followed a successful trial last year that tested the system’s effectiveness – although no tickets were issued during the trial.

The council’s regulatory services general manager Alison Curtis said staff safety is a key reason for the change.

“Like other councils, we’ve seen an increase over time in verbal abuse and threatening behaviour towards our parking officers.

“LPR cameras allow officers to primarily do their job from a vehicle, which reduces the personal safety risks they face on the street.”

As well as improving safety, the camera was expected to improve parking behaviour and increase turnover in available town centre parking spaces, benefiting the whole community, Curtis said.

“Parking on yellow lines outside schools at drop-off and pick-up times is also a growing problem, and we hope the LPR system will assist in improving safety for tamariki at these times.”

The system uses a high-resolution camera mounted on a vehicle to monitor parking behaviour in relation to the council‘s Traffic and Parking Bylaw and New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi transport requirements, and identify where there is overparking, illegal parking and unregistered cars.

A start date has not been confirmed, as the council is finalising a service provider.

“Before we get the vehicle into our district, we’ll share all the details of what to expect and when ticketing will begin.”

EPIC Te Puke chairman Antoine Pol-Simon said the organisation had discussed the issue and sent a letter to the council expressing its concern at the tendency of people to park in car parks all day, removing their availability to shoppers.

He said the retailers were impacted by this and there was a danger they were losing income as people shop elsewhere.

EPIC Te Puke board member and Te Puke Paper Plus owner Stuart Gunn said he was happy something was being done, “providing it works”.

He said at times, cars were parked outside his shop for five, six, seven hours a day.

“You can’t blame the public because, when it’s not policed, they are going to take advantage of it.”

He raised the issue with the EPIC Te Puke board after several customers told him they had struggled to find a parking space when wanting to collect orders at his store.

While there may be parking spaces elsewhere in town, he said parking further away causes issues for people with mobility issues or makes it an unpleasant walk in wet weather.