Central Otago mayor moonlights as parking officer

Central Otago District Mayor Tim Cadogan places a pamphlet under the windscreen of a car in...
Central Otago District Mayor Tim Cadogan places a pamphlet under the windscreen of a car in Alexandra. PHOTO: RUBY SHAW
Elected officials have hit the streets in Central Otago as the district council embarks on a parking campaign looking to free up space in towns.

Overstayers in the town centres of Cromwell and Alexandra can expect to be greeted with a pamphlet under their windscreen — a reminder from the CODC about parking conditions.

Over the past week, Mayor Tim Cadogan had been placing pamphlets on cars in Alexandra which had stayed past their time limit, or were parked incorrectly, such as on a footpath.

Community board member Bob Scott has been performing a similar role in Cromwell.

It was a quieter time of year for elected officials and CODC staff had suggested they could volunteer.

Mr Scott said reactions to the campaign had been wholly positive, with residents saying it was long overdue.

"People really do believe there’s a problem that’s not being dealt with," Mr Cadogan said.

Elected members had a lot of comments, particularly from business owners, about limited parking in central Cromwell and Alexandra.

Businesses did not need to be losing customers because of parking when times were already hard enough, Mr Cadogan said.

A significant amount of parking spaces were being used all day, likely by employees of nearby businesses.

He encouraged these people to park further away to release high usage parking spaces.

"It’s pretty easy."

Building more carparks was not necessarily the answer and it was preferred carparks were freed up.

"It would be much better if we didn’t have to enforce this."

Parking enforcement through fines would not be an economical solution and would cost the council and ratepayers, Mr Cadogan said.

Planning and regulatory services manager Lee Webster hoped the campaign would prompt change without the need for enforcement.

The campaign will continue until the end of January to get an idea of parking habits in Central Otago and decide if further education or enforcement was necessary.

"We want to free up access to parking spaces at the busiest times, to ensure we can all get to run those errands, do that shopping, grab a coffee and enjoy what our district provides," Mr Webster said.

If all goes to plan, residents could expect to see the community and visitors parking in the right place, for the right amount of time, without the need for enforcement, he said.