Council offers classes for city’s parking meters which are set for an overhaul

Hobart City Council has offered to run lunchtime seminars to explain how to use its new parking meters.

Motorists in Salamanca coming to terms with the new parking meters. Picture: MATHEW FARRELL

HOBART City Council has offered to run lunchtime seminars to explain how to use its new parking meters.

And the council has also promised to upgrade to colour the screens on meters “where glare is a problem”.

The changes come in the wake of mass confusion about the new meters, more than 300 of which are being rolled out across Hobart.

Criticisms have included that the screens are hard to read, the machines are difficult to operate, and that a $3 minimum charge if paying by credit card is unreasonable.

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Alderman Simon Behrakis on Wednesday called for the minimum charge to be abolished, and revealed he had written to the council’s general manager saying so.

Alderman Simon Behrakis. Picture: LUKE BOWDEN

“I have received overwhelmingly negative feedback in regards to the $3 minimum transaction for EFTPOS transactions in our parking meters, with many members of the public viewing this as a hidden fee for paying by card on the new parking machines,” Alderman Behrakis said.

“While it is understandable that there is a significant cost for EFTPOS administration, these are expenses that any retail business has to deal with.

“Many businesses that in the past have charged EFTPOS fees, or had minimum purchases, have since moved away from such practices due to their unpopularity among their customers, instead opting to absorb the expenses into the general cost of doing business.

“There is no reason why the City of Hobart should not do the same.”

Tasmanian independent MP for Denison Andrew Wilkie has already lodged a complaint with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission about the charge.

The how-to seminars, meanwhile, will run next month. Council has promised the sessions will include “demonstrations using an operational parking meter”.

“These sessions will ... provide an opportunity to ask questions, as well as to address any confusion around how parking infringements are incurred,” the council said in a statement.

The council said the changes to some of the parking meters came after listening to community concerns.

It said the new colour screens and the information sessions would help “promote a smoother transition to the new system and to improve the user experience for all drivers”.

“The new parking system allows Hobart drivers more options to pay for parking, whether by coins, by credit or debit card, or by using the EasyPark smartphone app,” the council’s statement said.

The parking meters offer multiple payment options, including coins, credit cards — and the “EasyPark” app which allows users to pay for only what time they actually use via their smartphone.