Over 40,000 vehicles used Lichfield St car park building in first three months

More than 40,000 cars have used Christchurch's new central city parking building since it opened in November, averaging 653 vehicles a day.

When it opened, the 805-park Lichfield St car park building was heralded by the Christchurch City Council as a "massive milestone" for a city struggling with gravel pits for parks and relying on on-street spaces. The building cost the council $31.3 million.

The parking numbers will have received a boost from the council's offer of an hour's free parking in its central city carparks until March 10, which is estimated to cost $780,632 in lost revenue. The move is an attempt to draw people back to the central city.

There had been 41,101 vehicles use the new car park from opening until February 2, with usage peaking in the lead up to Christmas and suffering a dip in the peak holiday period between December 30 and January 12. The council did not have occupancy percentage figures available.

The busiest week in that period, December 16-22, saw 6797 vehicles use the building, averaging 971 per day. The slowest week was January 6-12, when the building was used by 2259 vehicles, averaging 323 a day.

 

JOSEPH JOHNSON/STUFF

The Christchurch City Council says it occupancy numbers for the car park were expected to "continue to rise as activity in the central city increases".

 

Council transport operations manager Steffan Thomas said fewer people were telling the council they were struggling to find parking since the building opened. There was anecdotal evidence some people were driving directly to the building, rather than searching for parking.

He said the occupancy numbers were in line with council expectation. Numbers were expected to "continue to rise as activity in the central city increases" and people became more aware of the building.

When asked if he thought the end of the one hour free parking would affect usage, or if the council was considering extending the free hour, Thomas said staff were reporting back to council "in due course".

He said the council had received positive feedback about the building.

"People tell us that they like the look and feel of the building and enjoy using it."

Central City Business Association chairman Brendan Chase, who works across the road from the carpark, said most of the time the car park was only a quarter full.

"There's an enormous amount of capacity still available."

He said the first hour free incentive was "grossly underutilised", with more needed to be done to make people aware of it.

"There would be nothing in those numbers that would persuade me from thinking it's a good idea. People just don't seem to be totally aware of it.

"My view is there's more that needs to be done to encourage people to come into the retail precinct and continued car parking centres are probably a good idea."

The eight-storey Lichfield St facility is the third large parking building to open in the retail precinct, following the 400-park Crossing and 580-park Hereford St buildings. Another large car park will be built on Hereford St next year as part of The Terrace development.

It offers space and lockers for up to 96 bicycles, 24 disability access parks, and 10 electric vehicle charging bays. The building is wired so almost all of the parks can be converted to electric charging spaces if needed.