Coffee with a friend, gift shopping, a snip at the hairdresser, a stop at the travel agent, a grocery run...all topped off with a $65 parking fine slapped to your car.

This was the experience for one Tauranga resident while spending the day at the Bethlehem Town Centre – caught unaware by the centre's three-hour limited parking.

Posting on social media last week, the shopper detailed their outrage and disappointment after receiving the parking fine from the town centre's parking service – Wilson Parking. The resident warned other shoppers, after their shopping trip had ended bitterly.

So The Weekend Sun put the questions to the town centre to find out what exactly their parking policy is. 'We use the same service [Parking Enforcement Services] as Tauranga Crossing, Papamoa Plaza, and Bay Central plus other minor retail sites across Tauranga,” says Bethlehem Town Centre manager Lauren Todd. Looking on the town centre's website it advises there are 'over 1000 free carparks onsite”.

However, under the website's ‘Parking Enforcement Services' section it states: 'Whilst parking at Bethlehem is free of charges, to help ensure that carparks are free for customers to use, we are now monitoring carpark use”.

Lauren says the centre's parking enforcements began early-February. 'We noticed an increased number of vehicles that were parking on-site all day, taking valuable car bays in close proximity to store fronts.

'We recognised the vehicle owners were not visiting the town centre, but parking and riding buses, or being picked up by others and leaving the centre.”

Time checks

The shopper stated in their post that the parking ticket received did not indicate the time they parked their car, only the time of the ticket issue. 'We have made some slight adjustments to how those time checks are completed as it is certainly not our intention to penalise our genuine loyal customers,”
says Lauren.

Make improvements

She says the Bethlehem Town Centre is sorry to hear they have 'soured” the experience for this customer and have reached out to them. 'We will work with enforcement services on her behalf to get this charge cancelled.”

Lauren adds: 'We of course want customers to feel relaxed and enjoy their time visiting Bethlehem Town Centre and will take this as an opportunity to make improvements in this regard”.

'This will include looking at what we might do to make the time limits more visible and also cater for those who may be looking to spend more than three hours with us at any one time.”

If you've been unfairly ticketed, Bethlehem Town Centre asks customers to email: info@bethlehem.co.nz so they can assist in cancelling the ticket.