Rocca al Mare Shopping Centre Tightens Its Parking Rules
Text Timo Raussi Photo Visit Estonia / Citycon
The Rocca al Mare Shopping Centre in Tallinn introduced a new paid parking system today, 1 July, marking a significant departure from the practices of Estonia’s other major shopping centres. Parking is now free for up to two hours per day. After that, each additional 30-minute period costs €1. In addition, the newly designated “convenience parking” spaces located near the main entrance are chargeable from the very first minute.
The new policy has already attracted criticism on Estonian social media. Most complaints concern the relatively short free parking period, but also the fact that drivers displaying disabled parking permits will now be subject to the same parking charges as other customers. By comparison, Ülemiste Centre offers five hours of free parking, while Nautica Centre resets the free parking period every time a vehicle re-enters the car park. Accessible parking spaces near Rocca al Mare’s entrances remain in place, but they too become chargeable once the two-hour free period has been exceeded.
Under the new system, parking discs are no longer used. Instead, cameras equipped with licence plate recognition record every vehicle’s arrival and departure. Within two hours of entering the car park, customers must activate their parking session using either the Snabb, Parkman, or Pargi.ee mobile app. Any parking beyond the initial two free hours is then charged automatically through the payment card linked to the selected app. No customer service kiosks or payment machines have been installed inside the shopping centre.
If a driver fails to activate parking through one of the approved apps and a Snabb parking attendant finds the vehicle still parked more than two hours after its arrival, a €55 parking fine will be placed under the windscreen wiper. According to information provided by Snabb customer support, unpaid parking fines may be referred to a debt collection agency and can also be enforced against motorists residing abroad.
At the same time, Rocca al Mare and Snabb have launched so-called “convenience parking”. The parking spaces closest to the Prisma supermarket entrance, at the end of the shopping centre facing Tallinn city centre, now incur charges from the first minute. Drivers should therefore not assume that an apparently vacant space is free unless they are already familiar with the new rules. Until yesterday, when contacted by Baltic Guide, the shopping centre had publicised the changes for only about two weeks, and even then only sporadically online and only in Estonian.
In comments to Estonian Public Broadcasting (ERR), Helina Leif, Director of the Rocca al Mare Shopping Centre, said the purpose of the changes is to ensure that parking spaces remain available for genuine shopping centre customers. According to her, the car park had previously been widely used by people who were not visiting the centre.
Leif said the feedback from businesses operating within the shopping centre has been mixed, as expected. Apollo Bookstore and the My Sushi restaurant chain, which belong to the same corporate group, say they are monitoring the situation. Apollo CEO Kristi Juhandi believes customers expect to be able to browse, make impulse purchases or enjoy a meal without having to rush because of parking restrictions. She fears that any decline in customer numbers resulting from paid parking would affect specialty retailers and restaurants rather than supermarkets such as Prisma or Selver, where visits are typically shorter.
The shopping centre has already introduced exceptions for some businesses operating on the premises. Customers visiting the gym, beauty salons, and the children’s indoor playground can receive three or four hours of free parking by registering their vehicle with the service provider. Restaurant customers, however, will continue to receive only two hours of free parking—at least for the time being.
To learn more about this and similar topicsdebt collection agency motoring Parking parking app Rocca al Mare Shopping Centre Snabb Tallinn
