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Residents of Centreway Road in Orewa, and surrounding streets, say they are fed up with overflow parking from staff working at Auckland Council’s service centre.
A number of residents called into Hibiscus Matters’ recently to air their complaints. They say that turning into Weiti Road, in particular, has become dangerous due to cars parking on either side of the narrow street.
Around 40 Council staff have been able to park alongside the Orewa Service Centre on land owned by Signature Homes, ever since that land was sold by Council in 2012. However, in recent weeks development of that site has meant those workers need to find alternative places to park.
That appears to be just the tip of the iceberg; in fact, more than 130 Council staff are without on-site car parks. The Orewa Service Centre has 115 staff car parks available and there are currently 251 staff working there. In addition, 61 car parks are dedicated to Zeald, which leases offices in the service centre building. Remaining spaces are used for fleet, customer and accessibility parking.
Council’s head of corporate building services, John O’Brien, says that Council staff have a right, as any other member of the public does, to park in the roadway so long as they do so in compliance with the road code.
“If residents consider that any vehicle is parked illegally, one option is to call a parking enforcement officer,” he says. “We are aware of the concerns and frustrations residents have, so we will again remind staff about using street parking in ways that are lawful and mindful of the rights of other users.”
Centreway Road resident Rob Gallagher says he wants parking permits to be issued, so that parking around the service centre can be restricted to residents only.
Rob says visitors to his place have nowhere to park, and he has had vehicles towed when they blocked his driveway. His work as a handyman means he needs space to manoeuvre his car and trailer, and this has proved difficult with cars lining the road.
At times his frustration has boiled over and he admits to painting out yellow lines on part of Centreway Road in the hope that people will park there and not outside his place.
Signature Homes is building four homes and a childcare centre on the site at 46–48 Centreway Rd (on the corner of Weiti Rd). The childcare centre caters for 105 children and has consent to provide 24 carparks.
Rob says that this will make pick up and drop off times, at least, chaotic.
He says while residents will have to grin and bear it during the construction process, it’s ongoing parking that concerns him the most. “Businesses should be required to provide enough car parks, and not push it out onto residential streets,” he says. “I’ve spoken repeatedly to Council about this, but received no response.”
