‘Bizarre’ rego rule leads to more than 2500 parking tickets at Christchurch’s just-opened Parakiore sports centre

Friday, 30 January 2026

More than 2500 people have been slapped with a $75 ticket after parking at Parakiore - within the free two-hour limit - because they missed the small print.

Christchurch City Council confirmed 2585 breach notices were issued to people who had not entered their licence plate number, totalling almost $200,000.

Parakiore, on St Asaph St, opened on December 17 and offers two hours of free parking, but drivers must manually enter their car registration into payment machines inside the building to claim it. Thousands missed that rule.

Of the 2823 total breach notices issued, 91% of them were for not entering a number plate, while 238 were for customers who breached other rules.

‘Free for up to 120 minutes’

Black and white signs around the car park and a sign at the front entrance states “customer parking only” in large font, with “enter number plate inside on arrival” in smaller print below.

A sign at Parakiore instructs customers to enter their number plate inside on arrival, but the rules have been missed by thousands of drivers.

Christchurch dad Adam, who did not want his last name used, went to the sports centre expecting to pay for parking. Inside the building, the machine said parking was “free for up to 120 minutes”, so he carried on without entering his number plate.

He later received a $75 breach notice in the post from Stellar Parking - the company that manages the car park for the council.

Adam returned to the facility to understand what happened, where Parakiore staff told him he was one of “hundreds upon hundreds” of people with the same issue.

“The guy behind the counter looked at me like, ‘dude, you have no idea how psycho this has been’,” Adam said.

Parking cameras use automatic number plate recognition technology to check vehicles against payments made. Drivers have 15 minutes after arrival to enter their plate into machines or scan a QR code inside the building.

Adam questioned why he was fined when cameras showed he parked within the free time limit.

“So what is the fine for? It’s not for not paying as it was free. So is it for not entering my number plate into the machine? That’s bizarre.”

External signs instruct drivers to “enter number plate inside on arrival,” but payment machines display “free for up to 120 minutes”.

His breach was waived - so he took to Facebook to inform others they could dispute the charges, which sparked dozens of comments from people with similar complaints.

Adam said while the system made sense in principle – preventing nearby businesses from using the free parking – the execution was poor.

“If it was $45 I’d be like, OK, yes, we did it wrong, that’s fair. But $75 is insane considering it’s just opened and everybody’s keen to get there,” he said.

Dianna French was equally frustrated after her son Mitchell’s support worker was hit with a breach notice.

The worker displayed a disability parking badge, saw “two hours free” on the machine, and took Mitchell swimming.

Dianna French says displaying a disability badge is all that's required at other council facilities – but her son's support worker was fined $75 at Parakiore.

“Usually when you have a disabled badge, you don’t have to do anything at council facilities,” French said. Then the notice arrived in the mail.

“Support workers get paid bugger all anyway doing a great job, and then they get fined.”

The fine was quashed after they disputed it, but while French understood they should have read the fine print, she questioned the penalty.

“We were there for under two hours, but a $75 fine for not putting your registration into a kiosk? Feels like a money-making scheme,” she said.

Council reviewing signage

Registering licence number plates inside the building was the best way to ensure only Parakiore users utilised the car park, said head of recreation, sports and events Nigel Cox.

More than 145,000 people had used the facility between opening and January 25. Almost 60,000 motorists had parked there, and 95% of them successfully entered their number plate, Cox said.

The council was reviewing and updating their car park signage to better highlight the terms and conditions, he said.

Thousands of people have been caught out by not entering their registration number in order to claim free parking.

Council and Stellar Parking did not reveal how many people had appealed their breach notice, but Cox said most appeals had been about the number plate issue.

“While the system is bedding in, we’re taking an education-based approach and will not enforce penalties where a genuine mistake has been made,” he said.

Stellar Parking referred questions to council.