Do as Council says, not as they do (again)

Early morning ticket blitz

You may have seen the media coverage yesterday about the 27 people who woke up last week to tickets from Auckland Transport for parking on the kerb after a 2am blitz along Apahai and Tautari streets in Orakei.

By coincidence, Carmel, our volunteers coordinator knows the streets well. Her son flats on Tautari Street (he didn’t receive a ticket, though several of his flatmates did). Both streets are very narrow and if residents park on the street, it would be impossible to get any vehicles or emergency services past the parked vehicles. Parking on the curb has happened for years – it’s common sense – not that it matters to the Council.

Auckland Transport has tried to defend its actions. Apparently vehicles obstructing pedestrians using the footpaths are a big problem at 2 in the morning.

Yesterday I joined RadioLIVE’s Ali Mau and Willie Jackson to discuss the Council’s approach (click here for audio on demand).

Do as Council says - not as they do

So it came as no surprise today to learn that even the Council’s employees are parking on the kerb in the same area – only they don’t get a ticket. This afternoon the Herald published a photograph taken by an eagle-eyed resident of one of the Council’s very own cars parked half-on the footpath during the middle day.

This isn’t the first time photographic evidence of hypocrisy has been ignored. Auckland Transport 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.

We’re backing those who got the tickets – and have launched a petition calling on the Council to either abandon it’s hard-nosed approach and cancel the 27 tickets. Please take a moment to sign the petition by clicking here.