1908 Cafe owner Barry Monahan contacted the Otago Daily Times after being surprised to find two new P120 parking signs outside his business yesterday morning.
The signs had been installed by council contractors on land he owned, and so incensed was Mr Monahan by the changes he was threatening to dig them up and return them to the council offices in Dunedin.
"It seems like they just do whatever they like and they don't really care. They are on my property. The first thing I'm going to do is take the... things down ... I will just take them into the city council and give them back to them," he said.
His anger comes after the ODT this week reported many business owners in Port Chalmers had not been consulted over parking changes in the town's main street.
That followed last year's widespread changes to inner-city parking in Dunedin, which prompted 175 complaints from angry businesses also saying they had not been consulted.
Yesterday, Mr Monahan said he had been shown one aerial picture by Otago Peninsula Community Board chairwoman Irene Scurr earlier this year, showing what changes to parking in the township could look like.
He had not considered that to be a formal proposal or consultation, saying he disagreed with the changes but was waiting for written notification before objecting.
The board's plan to consider parking signs had also been covered in a brief news story in the ODT in January.
"I thought there would be some formal letter from the Dunedin City Council or someone saying, 'This is our proposal, and do you have any objections?'."
Instead, the new signs had appeared outside his cafe yesterday.
The changes meant a previously unmarked area outside his cafe - with room for up to 12 vehicles angle-parked - would instead have just two marked parallel parks, controlled by the P120 signs.
Mr Monahan said the change would reduce parking in the town and hurt his business "quite badly".
"We are trying to run a business and all of a sudden they take away all your parking for something that's been working perfectly fine. It just seems to be a bit of a joke."
Ms Scurr defended the changes, which would result in P120 and P5 parking restrictions on one side of the town's main street, while all-day parking remained on the other side.
The aim was to prevent "convoys" of campervans parking for extended periods outside Portobello businesses, and outlying residents leaving their cars in Portobello parks while catching buses to the city, she said.
A new bus stop and footpath planned as part of the changes meant there would be no room for marked angle parks outside Mr Monahan's cafe, she said.
The changes were first considered last year, after community requests, and drawn up with the help of council staff, she said.
The new design was approved by the board last month and confirmed by the council this week, but only after "five or six" meetings with the town's businesses.
All businesses had been consulted, with Mr Monahan's wife asked to "get back to us" if they had concerns, Ms Scurr said.
"Some of the businesses didn't feel there was a great problem. Others felt there was a need to make changes. I think we have held pretty good discussions. If Mr Monahan felt he hadn't been involved, that's disappointing."
However, Ms Scurr conceded the P120 signs had been mistakenly installed on Mr Monahan's property.
"He can dig them out if he feels like it. Someone will pop them in the correct position on Monday."
