Central city, Getting around  |  5 Jun 2019

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A change is going to be made to the all-day parking rate at the Lichfield Street parking building to free up more parking spaces for central city shoppers.

The parking sign at the Lichfield Street Car Park.

All day parking charges are going to increase at the Lichfield Street Car Park.

The Lichfield Street parking building opened in November 2017 and was built primarily to provide short stay parking to support the central city retail precinct.

However, as the retail precinct was still in the early stages of development when the parking building opened, Christchurch City Council offered a capped, daily maximum parking fee of $10.

This has allowed commuters to take advantage of the centrally located parking building while demand for short stay parking was still growing.

With the Canterbury District Health Board operating its hospital shuttle from the parking building and new shops and businesses opening in the surrounding buildings, there is now high demand for short stay parking and the Lichfield Street parking building regularly nears capacity.

To redress the balance between short stay and long stay parking, Christchurch City Council has decided to increase the all-day parking charge to $15 to free up more short stay parking spaces.

 “In the 18 months since the Lichfield Street Parking building opened, there has been a significant amount of development in the surrounding retail precinct,’’ says Council Transport Operations Manager Steffan Thomas.

“There are lots more shops and businesses open and the central city is attracting more people who want to come in for a couple of hours to shop, go to Tūranga, go to the movies, or have a bite to eat.

“We expect the numbers of people coming into the central city will increase even further when the Riverside Market opens later this year.

“It is important the Council supports the retailers and hospitality providers in our central city by providing their customers with access to short stay parking,’’ Mr Thomas says.

“By adjusting the price of the all-day parking in the Lichfield Street parking building from $10 to $15 a day, we should achieve a better balance between long stay and short stay parking.’’

The new charge will come into effect from 1 July 2019.

Occupancy rates at the parking building will be monitored and reported back to the Council's Parking Restrictions Subcommittee in November this year.