Last week, council officers were accused of conducting a parking "sting" outside Dunedin Hospital, fining able-bodied motorists for using mobility parking spaces to drop off staff.
Acting customer and regulatory general manager Paul Henderson rejected the claims, saying "only a handful of tickets" a month were issued before 8am in the streets around the hospital.
The Otago Daily Times reported a man got into a heated argument with a council parking officer — the man said the officer confronted him with "glee in [his] eyes" after he used a mobility park to drop his wife to work at Dunedin Hospital.
The man, who the ODT agreed not to name, claimed the "sting" was a blatant attempt at revenue gathering.
In a media release yesterday, Mr Henderson said 579 tickets were issued before 8am in the CBD in the year to July 31.
Of those, 35 (6%) were issued in the four streets surrounding the hospital block and eight of those were for unauthorised parking in mobility spaces.
The data did not cover a specific block, meaning it was likely the number of tickets issued to hospital workers was lower than 35, Mr Henderson said.
In July, just one ticket was issued in Great King St, where the hospital’s main entrance is located. The data "clearly" showed the council was not targeting hospital workers, or any other individual group.
Parking officers took an "education-first approach", asking motorists to move on where appropriate, Mr Henderson said.
"We’re simply enforcing the parking rules, including the well-signalled higher fines for misuse of mobility parking spaces, to ensure everyone has fair access to spaces."
Speaking yesterday in response to the council’s statement, the driver involved in last week’s argument said he saw a much higher number of interactions between parking officers and drivers.
He said he regularly saw officers "grabbing people as they're dropping folks off or being picked up first thing in the morning", when he felt there was no demand on mobility spaces.
"The experience that I had was nothing short of shocking ... there was almost a glee in [the officer’s] eyes that he'd caught someone."
He said the council needed to take a more pragmatic approach to early-morning, centre city parking enforcement.
Registered nurse Greeshma Bhasi told the ODT earlier this week she was usually dropped off and picked up by her husband.
"I have to jump from the car quickly to avoid the traffic jam — it’s all crowded there because everyone is coming and dropping off one by one."
She said when finishing at 11pm, she always asked her husband to come right to the doors early so she could quickly get in the car.
"It is a bit scary and, at times, nobody will be out on the road ... especially on weekends, some people are drunk and on the road, there's some disturbance, and I'm always afraid."
In the past week, the ODT has been contacted by several people with similar experiences and nurses who have said they faced a daily battle finding adequate parking or drop-off spots in the area.
Disability advocate Chris Ford told the paper there was no excuse for non-permit holders to use a mobility parking space, even if it was for a drop-off.
