Tauranga City Council has put a proposed two hour free parking plan for the city on hold while it investigates the best option going forward.

Council yesterday voted against Tauranga Mainstreet's call for a three month free parking trial starting in August.

Instead a longer free parking trial may begin later in the year – after the council has had a proper look at the proposal.

Council were given just eight days to look at a business case that contained no figures, and is set to cost the city $350,000 to $400,000 in lost revenue over the three months.

Mayor Stuart Crosby supports it, saying that it is a culture change and in that context the council can't have all the data before they start.

Just because the city might need a new parking building doesn't necessarily mean ratepayers will have to pay for it.

The resolution failed partly because councillors don't think three months is long enough for a proper trial, comparing it with the 18 months parking trial being undertaken in Rotorua.

Mainstreet regards three months as the absolute minimum. A report from Mainstreet's marketer Sally Cooke says the CBD needs immediate support.

Reports from Rotorua Wellington and Nelson are that free parking is a solid contributor to community building for the businesses, says Sally.

It will also remove the parking debated from the public arena.

'The parking debate, playing out in the media is damaging to perceptions and those feeding the debate are unaware of the damaging they are doing,” says Sally.

Councillors pointed out that Rotorua has no growth, and that reports from Nelson are that the feel-good factor is not backed up by economic figures.

Gail McIntosh says free parking will cost households $4 per year and admitted there is a feel good factor involved.

'It makes no economic sense. We've got to give it a go and make people feel better.”

Bill Grainger also doesn't believe free parking is a silver bullet. He also doesn't think three months is long enough to gain any useful figures about it.

John Robson's opposition is over the council being pushed to make a decision with ramifications for parking income that in any other circumstance would be more considered. He says it's ill-advised and that a three months trial is just setting it up to fail.

The call for more figures and more time to analyse them was disputed by Mayor Stuart Crosby who says the figures provided in the agenda were good enough

The motion that the council staff take a proper look and report back when they are ready was carried.

The staff report on the proposal recommends free parking be only over winter when parking levels on-street are lower than other times of the year. From mid-October through to Easter parking within the City Centre is well utilised.

If the two hours free parking offer goes into the busy half of the year there is a risk of 'parking saturation', which will lead to frustration for commuters and regular users as they fail to find a parking space.

Parking income for the recent financial year was $1,924,988 with $1,044,918 coming from parking meters. The council's off street parks brought in $737,228 and leased parking $142,842.

The figures show the current three zones, two prices, management scheme is working. Income is up and parking occupancy is down, as are parking fines. The slightly reduced occupancy figures mean the city centre's 3,400 car parks are operating more efficiently.

One of the fears raised about the effects of free parking is it will immediately soak up the available carparks, forcing the council's hand on a new parking building.

Reduced occupancy means the city can make an unforced decision. It's in the 2015/18 timeframe and whether to build a new one or put another floor on top of the Elizabeth Street is a ten year plan discussion topic.

The cost of developing a new car park building would be in the region of $34k to $38k per parking space. A new 650 space building will cost ratepayers in the region of $22m to $25m.