Hastings council selling off its old lollipop parking meters
They say one person’s trash is another person’s treasure and in the case of the recently decommissioned lollipop parking meters in Hastings, this seems to be the case.
First installed in the city in about 1996 the lollipop meters have been removed this year because they were beginning to fail, and they couldn’t be upgraded because their mechanical inserts are no longer being made.
About 500 were removed and have been replaced with new, automated pay-by-plate paperless parking technology.
The lollipop meters will eventually be sent to a scrap metal recycling facility, but in the meantime they are in demand as a nostalgic collectors’ item.
The council says it’s taken calls from interested parties around the country – ranging from individuals to private museum owners – asking to buy the old meters.
To quench the demand, the council will be selling them for $25 each for the single head meters, $35 for the double head meters, the money received to be put towards the costs of the new pay-by-plate machines.
The lollipop heads and supporting poles (limit two per customer), minus the coin canister and key, are available at the Henderson Rd transfer station, Hastings.
