July 28, 2025 • 7 mins
An expansion of paid parking around Tauranga’s city centre has been met with outrage by residents.
Liam Jackson, who lives near the CBD, revealed he would have to pay $10 a day to park outside his Park St home from August 4 after the council decided to expand paid parking to the city centre fringe.
He joined the Afternoons team to discuss further.
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Speaker 1 (00:09):
You're listening to a podcast from News Talk zed B.
Follow this and our wide range of podcasts now on iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
We have been talking about residential parking permits and parking
outside of your home. This after a Totonger resident Liam
Jackson has hit back at what he has expected to
pay for parking outside his house. He calculated it could
be over two thousand dollars a year to park outside
his property. And Liam Jackson is on the line now, Liam,
(00:38):
very good afternoon to you.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
Good afternoon to you too.
Speaker 4 (00:42):
So you have been up until this point been able
to park in front of your house? Is that correct?
Speaker 3 (00:48):
Absolutely? I've only just moved into to the property as well.
I used to live on a suburb in Taranga, and
the listeners who knows Taronga very well, it's an interesting CBD,
quite hard to park in on a regular basis, and
I work in the CBD and I thought, get this,
(01:09):
I'm going to move into town so I can just
walk into work and park outside my house. And I
thought that would be the end of it. And then
I think a week after I move in, this is
the bombshell story that comes out that the parking range
is going to be increased and including my road, which
is fantastic. And originally when I inquired to the council,
(01:34):
they said, yeap, no problem, we'll be having resident parking
permits there for you, perfect I thought. And then they're
a wake up one day to see that that's been
reversed by the council and so yeah, yeah, your your
calculations are are pretty stark, but that's that's what I
would also have worked out to about two thousand dollars
a year, fifty dollars a week just to pack ups
(01:55):
on my own house.
Speaker 4 (01:56):
And Liam, what kind of residents are you living? And
if you don't mind being asking.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
So we're we're in a flat So there's a bit
of a complex of flats there on on this street.
There's quite a few apartment buildings and so there's quite
a few few of us there, and so we will
have one off parking car park as is. But I
live in a model occupancy household, so it's near my
(02:22):
partner and in a flatmate as well, and we you know,
have different schedules and things like that. Obviously, you know
that means one of us is going to have to
be on the road to park and residents are around me,
are all saying the same things like that that it's
very similarity situations. So where do they expect us to park?
Speaker 2 (02:44):
So you say that this is effectively like a text
on living in the CBD, where there's a good argument
that Tyron and other councils should be looking to revitalize CBDs.
You think it's a decent center for people to live there.
Speaker 3 (02:58):
Absolutely, I think, yeah, Tunga has been going through a
bit of a challenging time. And I know that because
I work in the CBD. I see it's myself all
the time. And the problem is, I think the council
are doing, actually to their credit to some very good
work on revitalizing the CBD. The problem is, you know,
(03:18):
it seems one step forward, two steps two steps back
half the time. The problem is at the moment is
that there is not many car parks, and all of
them that there are there is you know, taken up
by workers who are coming into the CBD, And so
that means obviously phisitors or customers paying customers who want
to come and spend their money in the CBD can't
(03:38):
get anywhere. They just turn around, they'll go to a
shoping ball instead. Where they can get you know, plenty
of parking and whatnot. So I totally understand where the
council is coming from and trying to get workers away
from parking right next door to where they work. That
makes sense. But the only way to really do that
is not by punishing people who live in the CBD.
(03:59):
You know, we actually should be getting more people in
the CBD to live to them they can walk to work,
they can then spend their money with it inside you know,
all the shops and whatnot, and all the hospitality that
we have to offer here. It seems very controductive to
me that then, you know, when people like myself decide
to move into the CBD to try and you know,
make it more for Liverpool City, are then punished by
not being able to just park outside our own house.
(04:22):
In my views of this, you know what we should
be doing is if you want to get workers away
from those park parking spots, we need to be getting
much better public transport. We have no public transport in
the in the in the city at the moment. We
have a huge sort of spread in Taranga. It's a
huge city, growing city and always being built around the
(04:43):
fringes and of course people want to come into you know,
to drive and park into the into the CBD to
work or to you know, to come and have fun.
But there's no there's no trains, there's no trans there's
not there's nothing, and the buses are just terrible, right,
and so of course we're not given any worker as
any other options. So instead of I guess, yeah, disincentivizing
(05:05):
people from you know, living in the CBD to help
there that they've gone, they've gone the opposite way, which to
me just seems very constroductive.
Speaker 4 (05:12):
What would a fear solution look like to you? Are
you against paying all together or.
Speaker 3 (05:17):
Absolutely no, absolutely not, you know, I as you can
as your union listeners. Probably here, I've got an accent,
and you know, when I live in the UK in
city centers all the time, you'd have to pay for
a parking permit. I don't think that's unreasonable. I'm not
asking for freebies, you know, because it is prime, prime
location that these spots. I understand that. But for two
(05:38):
thousand dollars a year, come on, that's crazy, you know.
I think having the option of having a significantly discounters
don't get me wrong, you know, but still something to
put towards saying, you know, I'm living here, I'm taking
up prime retail space. I get that, but at least
give me the option. At least give you the option
(06:00):
to do so. And I think a limit on it
does not really affect on Like what Mahae said, you know,
it's everyone has different experiences and different needs. You know,
people have multiple cars in their homes for all sorts
of different reasons. To say you know that I ll
or my household need won two three cars, you know,
(06:20):
I think that that that seems silly to me. You know,
people have all the different needs and wants from from
their parking situation in the CBD so.
Speaker 4 (06:28):
As because there's there's two things, isn't there there is
being able to find a park in your house in
the near your house, and there's there's the paying for it. Right,
So are you looking for a situation where you're guaranteed
to find a park or a situation where you shouldn't
have to pay as much as people that are, you know,
(06:50):
competing for the parks?
Speaker 3 (06:51):
Yeah? Absolutely, I mean I'm not looking for a guarantee spot,
you know, I think what what they're do in most
other places is you know in the world, they have zones,
so the residents like anywhere in this zone. So you know,
if it's not a pace space, yeah, there's not a space.
But I think the real problem is is their they're
hell bent on you know, the reason why there's no
(07:12):
parks anywhere in town is because the workers are taking
them up. If we gave the workers different means or
methods to get into town, then we wouldn't have that problem.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
Yeah, Liam, thank you very much for having to chip
with us and keep up the good fight and keep
us updated with how you get on. But really good
to chat with you.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
For more from news Talks. It'd be listen live on
air or online and keep our shows with you wherever
you go with our podcasts on iHeartRadio.
You're listening to a podcast from News Talk zed B.
Follow this and our wide range of podcasts now on iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
We have been talking about residential parking permits and parking
outside of your home. This after a Totonger resident Liam
Jackson has hit back at what he has expected to
pay for parking outside his house. He calculated it could
be over two thousand dollars a year to park outside
his property. And Liam Jackson is on the line now, Liam,
(00:38):
very good afternoon to you.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
Good afternoon to you too.
Speaker 4 (00:42):
So you have been up until this point been able
to park in front of your house? Is that correct?
Speaker 3 (00:48):
Absolutely? I've only just moved into to the property as well.
I used to live on a suburb in Taranga, and
the listeners who knows Taronga very well, it's an interesting CBD,
quite hard to park in on a regular basis, and
I work in the CBD and I thought, get this,
(01:09):
I'm going to move into town so I can just
walk into work and park outside my house. And I
thought that would be the end of it. And then
I think a week after I move in, this is
the bombshell story that comes out that the parking range
is going to be increased and including my road, which
is fantastic. And originally when I inquired to the council,
(01:34):
they said, yeap, no problem, we'll be having resident parking
permits there for you, perfect I thought. And then they're
a wake up one day to see that that's been
reversed by the council and so yeah, yeah, your your
calculations are are pretty stark, but that's that's what I
would also have worked out to about two thousand dollars
a year, fifty dollars a week just to pack ups
(01:55):
on my own house.
Speaker 4 (01:56):
And Liam, what kind of residents are you living? And
if you don't mind being asking.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
So we're we're in a flat So there's a bit
of a complex of flats there on on this street.
There's quite a few apartment buildings and so there's quite
a few few of us there, and so we will
have one off parking car park as is. But I
live in a model occupancy household, so it's near my
(02:22):
partner and in a flatmate as well, and we you know,
have different schedules and things like that. Obviously, you know
that means one of us is going to have to
be on the road to park and residents are around me,
are all saying the same things like that that it's
very similarity situations. So where do they expect us to park?
Speaker 2 (02:44):
So you say that this is effectively like a text
on living in the CBD, where there's a good argument
that Tyron and other councils should be looking to revitalize CBDs.
You think it's a decent center for people to live there.
Speaker 3 (02:58):
Absolutely, I think, yeah, Tunga has been going through a
bit of a challenging time. And I know that because
I work in the CBD. I see it's myself all
the time. And the problem is, I think the council
are doing, actually to their credit to some very good
work on revitalizing the CBD. The problem is, you know,
(03:18):
it seems one step forward, two steps two steps back
half the time. The problem is at the moment is
that there is not many car parks, and all of
them that there are there is you know, taken up
by workers who are coming into the CBD, And so
that means obviously phisitors or customers paying customers who want
to come and spend their money in the CBD can't
(03:38):
get anywhere. They just turn around, they'll go to a
shoping ball instead. Where they can get you know, plenty
of parking and whatnot. So I totally understand where the
council is coming from and trying to get workers away
from parking right next door to where they work. That
makes sense. But the only way to really do that
is not by punishing people who live in the CBD.
(03:59):
You know, we actually should be getting more people in
the CBD to live to them they can walk to work,
they can then spend their money with it inside you know,
all the shops and whatnot, and all the hospitality that
we have to offer here. It seems very controductive to
me that then, you know, when people like myself decide
to move into the CBD to try and you know,
make it more for Liverpool City, are then punished by
not being able to just park outside our own house.
(04:22):
In my views of this, you know what we should
be doing is if you want to get workers away
from those park parking spots, we need to be getting
much better public transport. We have no public transport in
the in the in the city at the moment. We
have a huge sort of spread in Taranga. It's a
huge city, growing city and always being built around the
(04:43):
fringes and of course people want to come into you know,
to drive and park into the into the CBD to
work or to you know, to come and have fun.
But there's no there's no trains, there's no trans there's
not there's nothing, and the buses are just terrible, right,
and so of course we're not given any worker as
any other options. So instead of I guess, yeah, disincentivizing
(05:05):
people from you know, living in the CBD to help
there that they've gone, they've gone the opposite way, which to
me just seems very constroductive.
Speaker 4 (05:12):
What would a fear solution look like to you? Are
you against paying all together or.
Speaker 3 (05:17):
Absolutely no, absolutely not, you know, I as you can
as your union listeners. Probably here, I've got an accent,
and you know, when I live in the UK in
city centers all the time, you'd have to pay for
a parking permit. I don't think that's unreasonable. I'm not
asking for freebies, you know, because it is prime, prime
location that these spots. I understand that. But for two
(05:38):
thousand dollars a year, come on, that's crazy, you know.
I think having the option of having a significantly discounters
don't get me wrong, you know, but still something to
put towards saying, you know, I'm living here, I'm taking
up prime retail space. I get that, but at least
give me the option. At least give you the option
(06:00):
to do so. And I think a limit on it
does not really affect on Like what Mahae said, you know,
it's everyone has different experiences and different needs. You know,
people have multiple cars in their homes for all sorts
of different reasons. To say you know that I ll
or my household need won two three cars, you know,
(06:20):
I think that that that seems silly to me. You know,
people have all the different needs and wants from from
their parking situation in the CBD so.
Speaker 4 (06:28):
As because there's there's two things, isn't there there is
being able to find a park in your house in
the near your house, and there's there's the paying for it. Right,
So are you looking for a situation where you're guaranteed
to find a park or a situation where you shouldn't
have to pay as much as people that are, you know,
(06:50):
competing for the parks?
Speaker 3 (06:51):
Yeah? Absolutely, I mean I'm not looking for a guarantee spot,
you know, I think what what they're do in most
other places is you know in the world, they have zones,
so the residents like anywhere in this zone. So you know,
if it's not a pace space, yeah, there's not a space.
But I think the real problem is is their they're
hell bent on you know, the reason why there's no
(07:12):
parks anywhere in town is because the workers are taking
them up. If we gave the workers different means or
methods to get into town, then we wouldn't have that problem.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
Yeah, Liam, thank you very much for having to chip
with us and keep up the good fight and keep
us updated with how you get on. But really good
to chat with you.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
For more from news Talks. It'd be listen live on
air or online and keep our shows with you wherever
you go with our podcasts on iHeartRadio.
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