Dunedin CC loses $100k

Matthew Littlewood at the ODT reports:

A $100,000 spend on the failed rol­lout of cam­era cars to issue Dunedin motor­ists with park­ing fines has been labelled a ‘‘fiasco’’.

The Otago Daily Times was told by an insider that Dunedin City Coun­cil’s exec­ut­ive lead­er­ship team recently decided to shelve the licence plate recog­ni­tion (LPR) project, which involved fit­ting a pair of cars with spe­cial cam­eras.

Had it worked, the auto­mated cam­eras would have iden­ti­fied drivers over­stay­ing their time limit in car­parks.

The ODT has been told the decision by the coun­cil’s exec­ut­ive lead­er­ship team was not unan­im­ous.

‘‘It’s a fiasco and a buttcov­er­ing exer­cise,’’ a city coun­cil employee told the ODT. They said coun­cil staff were con­sid­er­ably aggrieved about the whole pro­cess.

This should be simple to do. It is not rocket science.

Private parking providers have managed this. There are now quite a few parking buildings where they scan my number plate as I enter. It knows I have an account, and activates my app. When I leave it charges my account for the time I was there. So basically I can enter and leave parking buildings now without needing to do anything. Is very user friendly.