Stop Private Parking Enforcement at Christchurch Council Facilities
Stop Private Parking Enforcement at Christchurch Council Facilities
The issue
Christchurch City Council has outsourced parking enforcement issuing $75 penalties for minor mistakes.
These excessive fees impact local residents and send hundreds of thousands of dollars out of the community.
We call on the council to stop using private parking enforcement and manage parking in-house.
$75 fines for simple mistakes are unreasonable at public council facilites.
With in the first month of opening Christchurch City Council confirmed 2585 breach notices – totalling almost $200,000 – were issued to people who had not entered their licence plate number.
Customers of the facility have reported being charged $75 for forgetting to enter license plate information on arrival, being late to enter it (outside the 15 minutes allowed) and even correctly entering it into the machine on arrival and still receiving a breach notice. These $75 breach notices are still being issued despite users not exceeding the 2 hours of free parking allowed.
The Christchurch City Council has engaged LPR Enforcement Services Limited trading as Stellar to manage parking at the recently opened Parakiore recreation and sports facility.
LPR Enforcement Services Limited is an Auckland based company with a significant overseas shareholding being 40% Australian owned. They issue excessive parking breach and administration fees to users of the facility for minor miss steps of the parking rules. Fees collected then leave our community and head offshore. Parking at Christchurch City Council facilities should be managed by the council keeping jobs and revenue collected in our community.
Customers wishing to appeal these breach fees are required to deal with this Auckland based offshore company to challenge any parking fees. While most users report having great difficulty in trying to deal with this company. Some users of the facility have reported successfully appealing the fees while some have had the $75 breach fee reduce to a $20 administration fee - still excessive given the offences alleged in most cases. To put these fees into perspective the cost of a full day's parking is $30.
The Council should not be allowed to engage a private parking management company that issues fees far in excess of the rates of parking at the facility and in excess of what the council would issue had the parking infringement occurred on a public road.
Additional issues have been highlighted regarding the detail of information provided on signage and the robustness of the validation process. Most users are unaware that they are parking in a privately managed car park unlike multiple other council facilities around Christchurch.
The Christchurch City Council should move to cancel all contracts with private parking management companies.
‘Fines’ copped for using free parking
24
The issue
Christchurch City Council has outsourced parking enforcement issuing $75 penalties for minor mistakes.
These excessive fees impact local residents and send hundreds of thousands of dollars out of the community.
We call on the council to stop using private parking enforcement and manage parking in-house.
$75 fines for simple mistakes are unreasonable at public council facilites.
With in the first month of opening Christchurch City Council confirmed 2585 breach notices – totalling almost $200,000 – were issued to people who had not entered their licence plate number.
Customers of the facility have reported being charged $75 for forgetting to enter license plate information on arrival, being late to enter it (outside the 15 minutes allowed) and even correctly entering it into the machine on arrival and still receiving a breach notice. These $75 breach notices are still being issued despite users not exceeding the 2 hours of free parking allowed.
The Christchurch City Council has engaged LPR Enforcement Services Limited trading as Stellar to manage parking at the recently opened Parakiore recreation and sports facility.
LPR Enforcement Services Limited is an Auckland based company with a significant overseas shareholding being 40% Australian owned. They issue excessive parking breach and administration fees to users of the facility for minor miss steps of the parking rules. Fees collected then leave our community and head offshore. Parking at Christchurch City Council facilities should be managed by the council keeping jobs and revenue collected in our community.
Customers wishing to appeal these breach fees are required to deal with this Auckland based offshore company to challenge any parking fees. While most users report having great difficulty in trying to deal with this company. Some users of the facility have reported successfully appealing the fees while some have had the $75 breach fee reduce to a $20 administration fee - still excessive given the offences alleged in most cases. To put these fees into perspective the cost of a full day's parking is $30.
The Council should not be allowed to engage a private parking management company that issues fees far in excess of the rates of parking at the facility and in excess of what the council would issue had the parking infringement occurred on a public road.
Additional issues have been highlighted regarding the detail of information provided on signage and the robustness of the validation process. Most users are unaware that they are parking in a privately managed car park unlike multiple other council facilities around Christchurch.
The Christchurch City Council should move to cancel all contracts with private parking management companies.
‘Fines’ copped for using free parking
24
The Decision Makers
Petition created on 30 March 2026