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The Canberra Times
The Canberra Times
Steve Evans

Why there's free parking in Canberra today

A computer glitch has affected Canberra's paid parking lots. Picture by Dion Georgopoulos

A glitch in the computer system means free parking in ACT government car parks today.

It's part of a national problem so ticket machines are not accepting card payments, according to a government spokesperson.

They were accepting cash but the ACT government decided to go free for the day. Tuesday will be back to normal paid-parking.

The carparks run by the National Capital Authority had a similar glitch but it opted to continue by taking other, non-plastic forms of payment.

The NCA manages parking in the Parliamentary Zone. The ACT Government manages other parking areas in the capital.

An NCA spokesperson said the outages were only intermittent and over by 10am.

But the ACT government was more lenient: "Noting the disruption to customers seeking to make credit card payment and uncertainty on resolution timing, as a gesture of goodwill Access Canberra advised the community that it would not be enforcing pay parking in the ACT today," a statement said.

The government was told in the morning by Duncan Solutions which provides the parking pay machines that there was a fault.

While parking was free throughout Monday, time limits still applied.

A statement from the ACT government said: "You do not need to pay for parking in ACT government car parks today. However, all sign posted time limits still apply as do other parking requirements.

"Parking enforcement of loading zones, disabled parking spaces and non-paid parking timed ACT government car parks will continue. We encourage the community to remember to park safely and legally."

Some of the car parks in Canberra are run by the National Capital Authority but it isn't known if they are also affected.

Private car parks were not thought to be affected.

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