My Account
Plunket’s car seat service in Whangaparaoa closes this week and the organisation is asking local families to use its North Shore car seat service instead.
The closure of the local car seat service, from October 1, is part of Plunket’s nationwide move away from rentals and sales to refocus on education and advocacy.
A Plunket press release last April said that “as fewer people are using the rental and retail side of the service it is no longer financially viable”.
Plunket’s car seat service was launched in 1981, when research found that only 20 percent of children were properly restrained in cars. Research by the Ministry of Transport last year found that 93 percent of children under five now travel in car seats.
Plunket’s chief operating officer, Andrea McLeod, says the service is proud of what it’s achieved. “We advocated successfully for the law change to make car seats mandatory, and our programmes have helped families get their children into car seats. She says there are many retailers better placed than Plunket to sell seats. “Our decision to move out of rental and retail, which has made a loss for several years, will not see a drop in access to safe seats.”
The change is also driven by data on unintentional injuries. According to figures from the Injury Prevention Research Unit at Otago University, fatalities for children aged 0-4 years average more than 50 per year and hospitalisations average more than 2500 per year for this age group. Most unintentional injuries happen to children in the home.
“Over the years, our staff have helped families keep their children safer on the roads, and we are encouraged by the decline in the number of children killed or injured as a result of motor vehicle incidents. We feel we have an opportunity to build on this, and do more to help families protect their children in and around the home,” Andrea says.
Over the coming months, Plunket is closing all its car seat rental and sale services, putting in place “a broader injury prevention plan of which car seat advocacy and education will be a part”.
Plunket Northern Region car seat manager, Simone Budel, says the organisation also has a lot of families who hire car seats over the summer holidays, so it wanted to consolidate its service to offer more from its North Shore hub.
The decision doesn’t affect any other Plunket services.
Customers who have car seats on hire from Whangaparaoa can return them at the end of their hire to the North Shore car seat service at 8 Constellation Drive, Mairangi Bay.
Residents with any questions can contact Plunket’s car seats team on 09 263 3084 or aucklandcarseats@plunket.org.nz
Other local providers of car seats advertise in this paper and include the Hibiscus Coast Community House in Western Reserve, Orewa.
