University, hospice, doctors worry Newtown parking plan would drive away staff
Thursday, 16 November 2023
Medical workers in Newtown are worried about the council’s plan to oust them from parking on the streets nearest to the hospital.
The parking scheme, which would make many spaces available only as P120 or residents’ parking, was unpopular with the many medical staff who park on the streets surrounding the hospital. About 1200 hospital staff park on the street every day, according to council estimates.
Mary Potter Hospice was “strongly opposed” to the change, wrote chief executive Tony Paine in a submission to council.
Staff and patients would need to park at least 15 minutes away under the scheme, and faced a high risk there would be no parking available at all.
“This is a risk that will be traumatic for visitors, stressful for staff already involved in challenging and difficult work, and if it led to one or more key staff not being on the in-patient unit … it would lead to significant risks to patient well-being and safety.”
The long-term risk was that the limitations on parking would erode the hospice’s ability to recruit and retain the staff it needed to function.
The hospice’s concerns were raised in a submission to the Wellington City Council on changes in Berhampore and Newtown, which include the restrictive parking scheme as well as a new bike lane.
Newtown Medical Centre raised similar concerns about recruitment and the “massive impact”, as did the Dean of the University of Otago’s Wellington campus.
William Levack told the committee he was supportive of green transport, but at the moment public transport was not good enough for the university’s staff to rely on.
“My biggest concern is us losing staff because they can’t get to work,” he said.
Sai, who did give a last name but who worked at the hospital and was part of their parking committee, said staff who lived nearby were walking or cycling to work where they could.
“Our challenge will be if you’re a nurse and you live in Kāpiti or you live in Wainuiomata, we don’t have a solution for that … Some people don’t have the option not to drive. A number of them will drive in to the hospital, have a shower, have breakfast, just to avoid the traffic.”
The hospital was working really hard to address the problem, but it was hard to see a solution.
At the same time, the committee heard submissions on the new leg of the cycleway network between Berhampore and Newtown. Once installed, it would make a connected route all the way from the city’s waterfront through to Island Bay.
“I am really encouraged by this piece of the area finally having separation from cars,” said Julie Crisford. In 2021 a car crashed into her and her toddler-aged son while she cycled to his daycare, ploughing over the back of her bike where her son was in his bike seat.
Crisford’s son stayed in his seat but was trapped under the car. The crash was “super scary” and left her son hysterical, she said.
“I had this slowed down disbelief and thought ‘Oh my god, it’s going to hit us, oh my god, it’s hitting my kid behind me first.’”
She encouraged the council to go further and introduce more separation between cyclists and cars currently barriers would only be installed on one side of the road in many places.
Fire and Emergency (Fenz) assistant commander Michael Dombroski asked the council to change the design of its cycleways entirely, saying they were slowing down fire engines along Adelaide Rd and adding risk.
The barriers of sticks meant cars could not pull to the left to let fire engines through, Dombroski said, and also made it difficult for fire engines to get close to houses.
There were “quite significant traffic delay and congestion issues” as a result. Raised pedestrian crossings were another obstacle which slowed down fire trucks, especially where there were “too many” in a stretch of road.