Surprise Surprise: Auckland Council Break Own Rules (Again)

The Auckland Ratepayers’ Alliance is repeating calls to let-off the 27 residents of Orakei's Apihai and Tautari streets which were ticketed in a 2am blitz last week for parking on footpaths. The renewed call comes after today’s release of a photoshowing an Auckland Council vehicle breaching the same rule in the one of the same streets. Carmel Claridge, a spokesperson for the Ratepayers’ Alliance, says:

“This is a case of the Council’s 'do as I say, not as I do' attitude. Despite the Council's own staff demonstrating that parking on the kerb in these very narrow streets is common sense, the Council still won’t budge and let-off the people it ticketed. It is arrogant in the extreme.”

“We’ve spoken to one of Auckland Transport’s spin doctors and asked whether the Council employee will also be ticketed. The answer is no. Incredibly we were told that one of the reasons is that photos are able to be doctored but even if the employee admits to the offence, Auckland Transport still won’t ticket the Council employee.”

“This isn’t the first time photographic evidence of hypocrisy has been ignored. The Council refused to ticket Len Brown when he was snapped parking over a cycle lane last month. It’s time we had a Council culture that served ratepayers, not lorded over them with this sort of arrogance."