Authority of meter maids extended

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32702, 3 September 1971, Page 22

Authority of meter maids extended

Parking meter officers in Christchurch —the familiar “meter maids”—will now deal with all parking offences within the parking meter patrol area of the city, under authority given by a change in the Ministry of Transport’s policy. The extension of the parking meter attendants’ authority to cover all parking offences comes as a result of representations made to the Ministry by the Canterbury Chamber of Commerce in June.

The president of the chamber (Mr L. A. Holland had noticed a bad traffic offence occurring while a parking meter officer was issuing parking tickets, apparently oblivious to the breach.

Inquiries showed that the officer had no authority to deal with matters other than parking-meter offences. This prompted the chamber to seek to have the authority of these officers extended.

The- new authority was notified in a letter to the chamber from the Ministry of Transport, which said that as the number of officers increased, their duties would be extended further to cover all parking offences outside their patrol area also.

The effect of the new arrangement will be to release as many traffic officers as possbile from parking enforcement, enabling them to concentrate on other aspects of their work.