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Forty-five car parks are being removed from within new school safety zones around six Dunedin schools.
The work was part of the Dunedin City Council’s $3million, 15-school programme that prioritised safety over parking at Dunedin schools, council transport engineering and road safety team leader Hjarne Poulsen said.
But T M Automotive owner Mike McMillan said there were no longer parks available when he showed up for work at his business in Howe St at 7am. Work on nearby George Street Normal School was under way.
Mr McMillan said that over two decades — despite at times hearing otherwise — he had seen 16 parking spots reduced to just four in the about 100m congested stretch of Howe St that did not need any more traffic calming.
"It’s been a historic thing — every four or five years we lose more and more parks. After having discussions with the council about the best way to sort out issues, they turn around and do completely the opposite," he said.
"It’s one of those things — now it’s in, it’s probably never going to go.
"It’s just extremely frustrating after all the years of trying to sort this out every few years they make it more and more difficult for businesses in the street, and, I would say, for a lot of the residents that are trying to park outside their flat.
"It seems to be that when they have the slightest what-they-consider-a problem they start placing these bloody bollards everywhere instead of actually trying to fix the problem," Mr McMillan said.
Mr Poulsen said the current work programme — the installation of speed signs, gateways, and safer crossings — had been completed at Bayfield High School and Fairfield School.
Work at the nine schools in the programme (three school zones have not lost parking spaces) was hoped to be completed over the next several months.
"We’d love to make these changes without taking any parking out ... it’s just not possible unfortunately," he said.
"The main thing for us is really the safety there."
In other areas of the city, feedback from schools and residents and monitoring and assessment showed the measures had slowed vehicle speeds and improved safety for people, a January statement from the council said.
Mr Poulsen confirmed there had been discussion of adding spaces through angle parking in Howe St, but due to the number of driveways in the street the benefit was deemed negligible.
Mr McMillan’s neighbour, Piano Specialists owner Jim Strang, did not buy the safety argument for Howe St, which runs perpendicular to George St.
"If it was for a good reason, if it was safety, if it was going to save a life, you can’t argue. But this is one short block with traffic lights at each end.
"Nobody speeds up or down here. They spend most of their time here sitting at those lights."
Out of space
Parking spaces lost for school safety:
George Street Normal School 12
Bayfield High School 9
Dunedin North Intermediate School/Sacred Heart School 9
Fairfield School 8
Kaikorai Valley College 7
East Taieri, Waitati and Wakari School 0
Source: DCC