Parking in Newtown and Berhampore is changing
The information on these pages is what we consulted on. The scheme was approved by Councillors on 18 April 2024 and started in Berhampore and Newtown west on 24 June 2024. The Newtown east zone is yet to come into effect.
Parking in the wider Newtown area has been under pressure for years. There have been repeated community calls for action to address this.
In addition, these busy inner-city suburbs are growing and in future will have a lot more people living in townhouses and apartments. With more residents, and the numbers of people working at Wellington Regional Hospital rising each year, the parking situation will get worse if there is no plan to manage it more fairly.
That's why the decision has been made to have a parking scheme for Newtown and Berhampore. These suburbs will be the first in the city to have a parking plan developed in line with the city’s Parking Policy approved in 2020.
Some significant changes have already been made following a first round of community feedback in 2023. These include:
- changing the length of time people can park in time-restricted parking spaces (without a resident permit or visitor day permit) from two hours (P120) to three hours (P180)
- the time limit for P180 parking will apply Monday to Friday, rather than every day, so people can still park where they want for as long as they want on weekends.
Consultation on the finer details of how the scheme will work was open for three weeks until 1pm, Monday 19 February 2024.
You can find out more about the changes that have already been made to the draft scheme in the What's happened so far section below.
The proposed parking scheme
The new parking scheme will determine who can park where and for how long in residential streets in Berhampore and Newtown. On-street parking will be a mix of spaces with no time limits (unrestricted parking that anyone can use for as long as they want) and P180 spaces that anyone can use for up to three hours.
Residents who choose to apply for resident parking permits (and have a permit approved) will be able to park in P180 spaces for as long as they want to.
Permits are currently $195 a year, about 54 cents a day. It will be possible to pay in instalments. We're also looking into the possibility of free parking permits for mobility permit holders and discounts for low income earners.
The parking scheme will:
- give residents priority and help ease parking pressures
- provide more short-stay parking for tradespeople and visitors
- more fairly manage the demand and allocation of parking permits.