A Coromandel surfer is calling on local authorities to share a percentage of the parking fees collected at a tourist hotspot.

Long-time Hot Water Beach Lifeguard Service committee member Gary Hinds was prompted to speak when it was revealed paid parking at the coastal community had generated close to $1.5 million in the 10 years since it was introduced.

“Since the fees were first put in, Hot Water Beach Lifeguard Service has been asking for a percentage of the funds to help keep people safe when coming to the beach,” Gary says.

“We have been back to ask, in more recent times, to ask for up to 25 per cent of the revenue that Thames-Coromandel District Council are attracting to the beach by advertising the location, to help cover emergency gear needed to run the service.

“To date, we have heard every reason why this can’t happen, but they keep attracting more and more people, while not putting funds into a volunteer organisation that has to find money to then keep everyone safe.”

Mercury Bay Community Board member and Thames-Coromandel councillor John Grant says he was aware of the situation and sympathetic to the service’s appeals.

Grant says funding was limited when the council was trying to maintain low rates in a difficult economic environment.

He says there were also other first-responder organisations to consider in terms of funding, including ambulance and air rescue services.

“They really need to go back to their own organisations for funding,” he says.

Surf Life Saving New Zealand says in a statement that it had nothing to add.

Gary, 56, started surfing at Hot Water Beach aged 36, joining his children in the waves.

An aerial view of the Hot Water Beach pay-and-display parking. Photo: NZME.

A third-generation farmer in the surrounding area, Gary says he had spoken with multiple council staffers over the years, who had been “very vague”.

“I’ve been going back to them every couple of years, they come up with all the different excuses.”

He says the service needed a percentage of the parking fees to help pay for equipment.

“It’s a shoestring budget, we replace things when we can. Hot Water Beach is a dangerous location and we had to fight to build the club, we had to fight tooth and nail to get it.”

Figures released to the Hauraki Coromandel Post last month showed combined paid parking revenue at two locations, one on Pye Pl and the other on Hot Water Beach Rd, of $1,479,549 between 2013 and 2024.

A Thames-Coromandel District Council spokesman at the time confirmed revenue from the parking charges contributed to maintaining and improving the car parking facilities and other tourism-related infrastructure in the vicinity, such as toilets, as well as the repayment of loans taken out for capital works related to tourism infrastructure in the area.

Parking fees at the tourist hotspot. Photo: NZME.

A 2013 report to the Mercury Bay Community Board, outlining the adoption of paid parking at Hot Water Beach, showed other funding options were impractical or potentially unaffordable while recent government directions indicated that the use of development contributions as a funding source was likely to be restricted in the future.

The objective of the pay-and-display system was to generate alternative income for the construction and maintenance of council infrastructure that was impacted by tourism, within the Mercury Bay area.

The parking payment method was on site at an automated kiosk, which accepted cash or credit cards. Fees were set at $2 per hour or $15 per eight-hour day, but a schedule of fees showed those prices had increased to $4.40 per hour and $28 per eight-hour day in the 2024/25 year.

The proposal to introduce paid parking at the beach had attracted 74 submissions, with the council confirming the project would proceed in April 2013.

In 2021, petitioners claimed victory after the community board stopped a proposal that would have left no free public parking at Hot Water Beach.

The Mercury Bay Community Board voted against parking charges at the Domain Rd carpark – the last of the free council carparks at Hot Water Beach.

In June, the council submitted on the Government’s proposed changes to the International Visitor Conservation and Tourism Levy, calling for a maximum $100 fee for international visitors.

It argued the levy should be raised as the Coromandel had high visitation with a low ratepayer base, and that it needed more support to build and maintain tourism infrastructure such as toilets, campervan dump stations, and parking areas – without a significant ratepayer burden.