Those fined for parking in areas for cruise ship buses outside Toit\u016b will get a reprieve as an olive branch is offered for those who have been hit in the pocket.<\/p>\n
A Dunedin City Council spokesman said this year to enhance safety and traffic flow, spaces outside Toit\u016b Otago Settlers Museum were being used as temporary parks for cruise ship shuttles on busy days when large numbers of buses were operating.<\/p>\n
When this occurred, signage in the vicinity of Toit\u016b was updated the night before to display \u2018\u2018Authorised Cruise Ship Shuttles Only\u2019\u2019 notices.<\/p>\n
This involved changing five signs on posts in the area around the museum.<\/p>\n
The spokesman said while legally compliant, the council acknowledged the temporary arrangements for parking outside Toit\u016b might be confusing and it apologised for that.<\/p>\n
As a result, the council is reviewing a small number of cases in which infringement and towage fees were issued to vehicles which paid for parking in the area while the temporary bus stop was in place and have already waived a number of those.<\/p>\n
The council was proactively working to contact anyone affected by this.<\/p>\n
Anyone who has concerns should get in touch with the council\u2019s customer services team.<\/p>\n
It will also be rolling out additional measures to make parking situation outside Toit\u016b clearer in future.<\/p>\n
This will include additional temporary signage and \u2018\u2018no parking\u2019\u2019 cones on busy cruise ship days.<\/p>\n
It is also investigating whether it can add covers over parking meters when the spaces are needed by cruise ship shuttles and whether digital messages can be displayed on the
PayMyPark app for people using those spaces, but this may take longer to introduce.<\/p>\n
A trial is taking place this weekend with a new space for the temporary shuttle stops in the Octagon.<\/p>\n
The council will consider whether this will be a permanent change at a later date.<\/p>\n
The informal paper notices attached to parking meters near Toit\u016b were not the work of the council and it would also be reminding third parties not to install their own signage as this may also be confusing.<\/p>\n
A Dunedin resident, who wanted to remain anonymous, had his vehicle towed when he parked outside Toit\u016b on February 24.<\/p>\n
He said at the time the parking was confusing and unclear.<\/p>\n
He was fined $190 which he said would have a big impact on him.<\/p>\n
When contacted yesterday, he said that was great news about the council and had made his day.<\/p>\n
He really appreciated the humility of the council and their recognition of issues around the signage.<\/p>\n
W\u0101naka man Greg King said his partner Tomioe Hatekeyana had parked her car in a vacant space outside Toit\u016b and received a $190 fine, also on February 24.<\/p>\n
When she returned to her car, inside of what she thought was the allocated time, she was met with a $100 fine and a $90 towing fee \u2014 even though the car had not yet been towed.<\/p>\n
Yesterday, when finding out the fine would be revoked, he was happy with the council\u2019s response.<\/p>\n
\u2018\u2018That is all we asked for.<\/p>\n
\u2018\u2018If we had done wrong then we would have paid,\u2019\u2019 he said.<\/p>\n
\u2018\u2018But we didn\u2019t, so felt we had been treated unfairly.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n
He said the towing fee with the car still not yet towed puzzled him, but the council advised the fee came live when the towing company was asked to go and retrieve the vehicle.<\/p>\n
The\u00a0Villa Vie Odyssey\u00a0is scheduled to arrive in the late afternoon today.<\/p>\n
There will be no shuttle service to the city centre for this ship on Saturday.<\/p>\n
The\u00a0Noordam\u00a0will arrive in Dunedin as scheduled today.<\/p>\n