Free on-street parking in central Queenstown will begin three hours earlier than usual from Wednesday next week following a growing community clamour for the move. Free parking usually starts at 9pm in the resort’s town centre, but was brought forward to 6pm, with no time restrictions, at a meeting of the Queenstown Lakes District Council’s traffic and parking subcommittee on Thursday. It follows a call by Crs Val Miller and Penny Clark last month to start free parking at 4.30pm as a gesture of support for hospitality businesses. Finance manager Stewart Burns said the council had to be alert to "unintended consequences" from the change, because town centre workers were likely to use the parks. Council spokesman Jack Barlow said the required changes to signs and parking machines would be completed on Wednesday, and the change would be effective from 6pm that day.

Source: Otago Daily Times April 16, 2021 16:30 UTC