Football matches last 90 minutes, plus say 10 minutes for half time and perhaps another 10 minutes for added time when players need major medical care because their hair got mussed up. Therefore when you go to a match and park at a meter you should be able to be pretty sure how much time to buy. Things went badly wrong for fans in Wellington New Zealand when a match between their local team and visitors Perth went first into extra time and then a penalty shoot-out. When the fans returned to their cars more than two hours later not surprisingly they found they had been ticketed for overstaying their paid time
Now obviously someone in the local council is a fan and has made a decision to let all the football fans that were given parking tickets during Sunday night's game off the hook.
My first reaction on reading this was that the City had behaved sensibly adopting a flexible approach to unforeseen circumstances surrounding a significant local event. But then I re-read the article.
Hang on a minute! The offenders got ticketed because they had overstayed in a 90 minute parking zone. Any match lasts minimum of 100 minutes plus the time to enter and leave the stadium so all these drivers knew when they parked that they would commit an offence. So why let them off, it wasn't unexpected it was pre-meditated?
Wellington City Council will be reviewing parking restrictions around the stadium ahead of the next game but until then I see no reason not to collect what is due.
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