Council proposes $29 for four hours' parking

Auckland motorists are in line to be hit hard in the pocket if they want to park in the CBD in future.

Consultation is underway for Auckland Transport's parking proposal to remove time restrictions and replace them with a single approach to pricing.

It'll see hourly rates of between three and five dollars for the first hour, and between five and eight dollars each hour thereafter - so potentially costing around $30 for four hours' parking.

AUDIO: Auckland Transport's parking manager Trevor Starr explains the fee increases

Auckland Transport's Mark Hannan says if people are parking all day, they should be looking at parking buildings instead.

"The aim is basically to get people moving in and out all the time. We don't want people to park all day on city streets."

He says while he expects there to be some backlash, there is support among central city retailers.

"Right throughout this we've consulted with Heart of the City, which is the major retail group in the city and they support this, so now we're putting it out to general consultation to see what sort of response we get from Aucklanders in general on this."

Mr Hannan says the proposal will increase availability of on-street parking, reduce traffic and parking congestion, and remove signage clutter.

The consultation period runs until July 1.

The submissions page can be found here