St. John's Coun. Debbie Hanlon put motorists on notice that those who park in front of broken meters will be ticketed.

Council will now be handing out tickets to anyone parked for longer than two hours in a space with a missing or broken meter.

"If you look out and see all the parking taken up, it's just unfair," Hanlon said after Monday's weekly council meeting.

"I really hope that people have a moral conscience and don't park there."

Broken parking meters have become a common sight in St. John's, as city officials and police deal with vandalism and thieves. (Ryan Cooke/CBC)

Council has been battling issues with battered meters for a few years now. Multiple people have been arrested for beheading and beating up the meters, but it's starting to cost the city a lot in lost revenue.

It's not just a downtown issue, either. Hanlon said it's a problem on Freshwater Road and at Churchill Square.

Just last month the City of St. John's said it has lost $1.1 million in revenue over last year.

"There's other ways to get downtown besides taking your car, parking it in front of a retail store all day long, just because you are lucky enough to get a broken meter," said Hanlon.

"I just say, shame on them."

Debbie Hanlon, standing, hopes the possibility of a ticket keeps people from parking too long in spots with broken meters. (Jeremy Eaton/CBC)

Hanlon, council's lead for transportation, has also operated businesses in downtown St. John's and is sympathetic to a part of the town plagued with parking problems.

"Put yourself in the shoes of a small business owner downtown," she said.

"Someone goes in there, parks there all day long, [then] customers can't shop there and they have enough challenges as it is."

Signs will be posted shortly to let people know that parking for longer than two hours could earn you an expired meter ticket.

Softening stance on winter parking ban

With the city standing firm on the broken meters, it did loosen up regulations with its pilot winter parking project on parts of Water and Duckworth streets.

"We weren't ticketing last year, we were only towing," Hanlon said.

"It was an adamant 'tow no matter what,' which wasn't very popular."

Council voted unanimously to bring back the downtown winter parking ban that will take effect Jan. 2 and end March 31. This corresponds to the already existing on-street parking ban.

Last year the pilot project ran from 3:30 a.m. until 6:30 a.m. — its aim to allow for snow clearing to create greater access to downtown parking. This year, it's 4 a.m. until 6 a.m.

The city hopes ample notice avoids the anger from last year's parking ban. (Jeremy Eaton/CBC)

City hall will be handing out $55 tickets to offenders and will only tow when there is a need for snow clearing.

"I'm really hoping that this year we are much earlier out of the gate," said Hanlon.

"We've been engaging with residents, business owners and stakeholders for months. Engagement has been really, really high on this one."

Hanlon said the city can also cut short the parking ban if the snow stays away like it did last winter.