In 2012, the Council gave resource consent to the Russley Business Park development right next to residential streets.
Since then, the residents of Fenhall, Pinehurst, Bentley and Penwood Streets have had to put up with staff parking their vehicles outside their homes throughout the day, so that there is no space for the residents’ own vehicles or those of visitors and tradespeople.
This is what some of the residents have written to us:
- “Our street used to be a quiet, safe street, a peaceful residential street, but now it is like living in the inner city.”
- “Noisy cars and noisy people start arriving after 6.00 am. They do not care how much noise they make. Then we have people coming and going all day and into the night.”
- “The streets are not being swept regularly by Council vehicles as there are vehicles on both sides from 6:30 am to 5 pm.”
- “Collection of wheelie bins is hampered by vehicles parked on both sides of the road.”
- “Our properties are now being devalued.”
- “People, including my mother, no longer visit during the week as more often than not, they are unable to find a park within reasonable walking distance from our house.”
- “Coming out of the driveway is dangerous due to the blocked vision and speeding vehicles.”
- One lady writes that her husband nearly had a serious accident on his scooter when he was turning from Fenhall Street to Bently Street because a courier came down the middle of the road, owing to cars being parked on both sides of the streets.
Why did this happen?
Council granted resource consent to the business development without ensuring that there were enough on-site parking spaces. As a result, staff have had to park on nearby streets.
Council’s attempts to “fix” the problem
Council first tried to resolve the issues by putting 120-minute parking limits. But this exacerbated the problem, since residents or their visitors themselves could not park their vehicles outside their own properties, while staff simply swapped parking spaces every two hours.
The problem in stats
The ACG learnt from the Council that between 2010 and April 2017, the Council has :
On Fenhall Street
- Received 79 complaints;
- Issued 3,197 infringement notices in total; and
- Issued 2,630 infringement notices for time limit infringement; and
On Pinehurst Street
- Received 61 complaints;
- Issued 1,347 infringement notices; and
- Issued 2,630 infringement notices for time limit infringements.
What the ACG has done
In April 2017, the ACG submitted before the Fendalton-Waimairi-Harewood Community Board, pointing out these issues. Our submission can be read here.
The Council tried to fix the issues by implementing a 1-hour parking limit instead (so that staff wouldn’t have time to swap car parks) and also installed a full-time parking warden.
The issues remain. Many of the residents on Fenhall and Pinehurst Street have relocated because they can’t put up with this anymore.
What next?
The ACG is lobbying for a “residents only” parking permit that allows residents and their visitors to keep their vehicles parked in front of their houses notwithstanding parking limits that apply to others.
Do you have any suggestions? Let us know using the details on our “Contact Us” page.