PARKING METER REVENUE

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27675, 3 June 1955, Page 12

PARKING METER REVENUE

NO DECISION YET ON USE OFF-STREET CAR LOTS SUGGESTED The City Council has not yet decided what will happen to money it will receive from the parking meters which are now installed in Christchurch, and which will begin producing revenue from next Wednesday morning. Whether the money should be earmarked to provide off-street parking., to benefit motorists by being used for roading and maintenance, or simply put into the general funds and used to reduce rates will be the issues before the council. A decision is unlikely at the next meeting of the council on Tuesday evening, when the council will pass resolutions fixing the fees and times for parking. Cr. N. R. Forbes, chairman of the council’s traffic committee, said yesterday: “As far I am concerned personally, the money that comes from the meters should be used for offstreet parking.” He added that the matter had not been discussed, except informally. There is no uniform policy among the local bodies which have already operated meters. Some have decided that the money should go towards offstreet parking, but the Municipal Association has rejected a proposal that a local authority should be compelled to spend parking meter money for the benefit of motorists, and held that it should be at the discretion of local bodies. Though the council will be receiving money from its 780 meters from next week,, it will take probably a year, and perhaps longer, for the meters to earn their initial cost.