A proposal by Wellington City Council to bring in congestion charges and parking fees in the suburbs has sparked some pretty angry outbursts from locals.
The council has committed $1.8 billion over 10 years to help fix the city's failing water infrastructure and is now looking for ways to increase revenue.
To say locals Newshub spoke to in Karori are outraged by the idea of suburban parking fees would be an understatement.
"They are a pack of assholes and we're not their personal bank," one person told Newshub.
"Tell them to f**k off and get better management of their money," another said.
On Thursday Wellington City Council voted to investigate paid parking for 14 suburban centres to help fund the city's long-term plan.
"They'll be killing the suburbs so there's not much else they can kill really," one person said.
Other suburbs include Tawa and Johnsonville. Michael Gray, the chair of the Johnsonville Business Group, owns bakeries in both those areas and is staunchly against the proposal.
"It's gonna add another cost to the consumer at a time when we've got a cost of living crisis and people struggling," he said.
He also warns the impact on local businesses would be huge, at a time when things are already tough.
"The real chance is people are going to shop in other suburbs, so instead of Johnsonville it's Porirua or the Hutt Valley," he said.
The Council's looking at other cost savings such as reducing its budgets for CCTV, strengthening the City to Sea bridge, slowing work on the Golden Mile and looking at whether to charge people to drive at peak times in busy locations.
"We support congestion charges but what we're worried about is this is just revenue raising in desperate times and we have to be careful the public isn't punished," Wellington Chamber and Business Central CEO Simon Arcus said.
Wellington City Council said the proposal still needs to go through public consultation which starts on April 12.
