If you were in a bit of a rush yesterday morning, I dunno - perhaps somehow you were caught out by daylight saving and you scrambling to get to an appointment - and you forgot to put money in the meter before rushing off, you'd have been fined $40.

If you did it today, exactly the same offence, you'd be fined $70. Almost double. Parking fines are up for the first time in twenty years and errant parkers will be facing stricter penalties across the board. 

I don't have an issue with the higher fines. If you don't want to be fined, pay for your parking. It's pretty simple. 

But despite supporting higher fines, Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown isn't happy with the regime. He takes issue with the fact that fines are still set by central Government under the Land Transport Act, rather than local councils.

I think he's got a good point. It seems absurd to me that for all the talk about localism, councils are still relying on an edict from Wellington to set their parking fines. If a council can't be relied on to set appropriate parking fines, how on Earth can expect it to manage a balance sheet, consenting or complex infrastructure planning? 

And Wayne Brown's quite right - there's no reason that fines in congested city centres should be the same as parking fines on the main street of a regional town. 

Central government says it wants local councils to be focused on the basics. Setting the parking fines within its own jurisdiction qualifies as a basic, for me. 

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