[ad_1]
A number of Feilding retailers remain adamant there are more diplomatic ways to encourage a higher turnover of car parks than introducing a $428,000 sensor system.
Consensus proved as elusive as a car park on Manchester Square, at a public meeting on Tuesday night, when the town’s business community was asked to provide feedback on a plan to introduce three-hour parking limits.
Scarcity of parking spaces for shoppers due to workers making the most of the town’s all-day free parking had been an issue for 30 years, deputy mayor Michael Ford said, when outlining the council’s reluctant proposal for new rules.
Most businesses in the town understood they were part of a community and that it was important to free up parking for shoppers and visitors, but there was always a handful who “thumbed their nose at it, and said no, no-one is going to tell me what to do”.
This attitude had been exacerbated due to a lack of consequences, and polite requests and conversations were no longer having an effect.
“That bus has left the station,” Ford said.
Matthew Dallas/Stuff
Attendees of the meeting were encouraged to place their ideas or views on the information boards, and signal their support or opposition to the proposal by putting counters into jars.
The parking system could be budgeted for in the next annual plan and enforced from July next year.
Infrastructure planner Brittney Evans said the capital cost of the proposed parking system would be $428,000, with an ongoing operating cost of $200,000 a year. CBD ratepayers would be expected to fund 25% of the cost – $188 each a year – and district-wide ratepayers the balance, about $10 each a year.
Several shop owners among the group of about 40 people present, baulked at the prospect of ratepayers effectively being penalised for the in-action of a handful of businesses with larger staff numbers who were considered the main offenders.
“Because of the ignorance of some business owners, just a few, to not park in the old New World car park or across from Mitre 10, we have to go through this? asked Salt & Honey owner Jo Churan.
Warwick Smith/Stuff
Two quadrans of Manchester Square, one of the main problem areas where all-day parkers mean there is little turnover of spaces.
Resident and shopper Fiona Graham compared the council’s proposal to “trying to crack a nut by tossing a caber at it”.
“Surely this is about educating some of these businesses, these workers, to be more respectful of the small shopping businesses, and those who support them.
“You’re making customers feel really angry and upset and hurt.”
This perspective was strengthened when the branch manager for ANZ Feilding, Jenny Hooper, said she only became aware of the parking issue after reading Stuff’s article on how it impacted Manchester Square clothing store Turnaround and its owner Kate Wild.
“I’ve managed Feilding for years, and I haven’t been approached about this. But when I saw Kate’s article on Stuff, it really struck to the core with me.
“And it took an article for me to go to my team and say, hey guys, we’re not doing the right thing for our community.
Warwick Smith/Stuff
Reading about how the lack of free parks affected Kate Wild’s shop Turnaround, “struck to the core” of ANZ bank manager Jenny Hooper, who has since stopped parking in the CBD and advised her staff to do the same.
Hooper said she and her staff had since started parking away from the CBD, drawing applause from the room.
“My point is, I don’t even live in Feilding and I could see the impact. Kate’s article was really emotive, and it was really good.
“I can’t help but think, surely, if I can be affected by this as a non-resident, surely these other businesses that haven’t been approached could be approached more from that community basis.”
District councillor Colin McFadzean said alternative ideas to monitored parking limits were welcomed, but so far everything else the council had tried had failed.
“I insure with an insurance company, and I’m not going to mention them, but I wrote to them today and said I’m going to cancel my policy and move to someone else because of your staff ignorance. Will it make any difference?”
Many at the meeting acknowledged most of the larger employers in the Feilding CDB weren’t there.
Supplied/Manawatū District Council
The three-hour parking zone proposed by Manawatū District Council. Some people at the meeting thought the middle bay parking on Kimbolton Road should be excluded, and others feared it would simply shift the problem to another part of the CBD.
Chris Torr, who owns Health For Life on Fergusson St, said it was written into his staff’s employment contracts to park on the railway land or the Eyre St car park.
But given the town’s continued growth, and the need to accommodate increasing numbers of shoppers and workers, he said it was time for Feilding “to put its big boy pants on” and manage its parking.
“Who knows how many workers there are, and where the hell are they going to park? Nobody knows that.”
Torr said the technology was available to manage the parking turnover efficiently and without the need for charges, so it was a “no-brainer”.
Feedback on the proposal could be made online, via a form on the council’s website, until September 8.
[ad_2]