Auckland needs the Wellington way

The Herald reports:

Residents of two narrow Auckland streets are furious that council parking wardens fined 27 of them in a 2am blitz on cars with two wheels on the curb.

They say if they had parked correctly access would be obscured for emergency services vehicles, rubbish trucks and other large vehicles and likely result in damage to cars.

Residents on Orakei’s Apihai and Tautari streets woke on Thursday morning to find $40 fines on their windscreens.

A 2 am blitz. That is just outrageous revenue gathering.

A Fire Service spokesman said as residents were parked on the kerb, staff had not experienced issues of blocked streets in Orakei.

“If they were forced to start parking on the road, like it sounds like they will be now, it’s only now that we might start seeing this.”

A St John spokeswoman said the residents’ concerns were justified, but there were no recorded incidents of paramedics not being able to access a patient due to a narrow road.

“St John’s preference is for streets to be wide enough for comfortable ambulance access in order to get to patients as quickly and safely as possible.”

Police spokesman Grant Ogilvie said it was important narrow streets were kept clear for emergency services to use.

Auckland Transport should be told by the Council to pull its head in.

In Wellington, the City Council takes a flexible approach to street parking. They even refer to it in a brochure as “The Wellington Way” which is to ignore technical breaches of the regulation that says don’t park on foot paths, because forcing people not to do so would be more hazardous.