A council candidate in the local body election believes Rotorua's parking system is complicated, and is turning people off using city shops

Kevin Coutts (coots) wants to bring in free parking for the first half hour, or hour, in some places in town.

He'd also rip up a cycleway and replace it with carparks - saying he's only ever seen one person using it and it's a waste of money.

Coutts says the council says it wants to revitalise the city centre ... yet it brings in an expensive and complicated way of parking.

He says people don't want to go into town any more as they can't use the parking meters.

Rotorua uses an i-Park system where you enter your plate number, then pay ... the cost is a dollar an hour.