Controversial parking scheme still on the table for Newtown
Friday, 1 December 2023
A plan to remove free parking spaces around Wellington Hospital remains on the table, despite concerns from health workers who say driving to work is the only option.
On Thursday councillors considered the proposed parking scheme which would remove a number of free all day parking spaces in Newtown to be allocated to residents.
The majority of councillors voted to progress the scheme, with only John Apanowicz, Diane Calvert, Ray Chung, Tony Randle, and Nicola Young voting against.
Nureddin Abdurahman proposed five amendments to the agenda, seconded by Sarah Free, with only two passing.
One was that Wellington City Council further engage with Newtown Hospital and other local organisations to work on solutions, including an option of the council providing off-street car parks, to report back before May next year.
The scheme would see 2500 two-hour parking spaces introduced around Berhampore and Newtown.
This proposal had previously drawn the concern of staff at Wellington Regional Hospital, particularly those working late-night shifts who relied on the suburb’s free parking for their commute.
A neonatal intensive care unit nurse living outside the city said public transport was too long, too ill-timed and too unreliable for her to make it to work at Wellington Regional Hospital any other way by car.
Another nurse told The Post taking public transport to the hospital took 75 minutes, and involved multiple bus changes.
Twice, late buses meant she was delayed for her shift, and one time an emergency at work meant she had missed her bus home, leaving her stranded in Newtown.
Wellington City Council street transformation manager Paul Barker said the time restricted spaces allocated were equal to the number of residents observed in the street and during the day.
“Essentially we’re not removing any car parks from users.”
An area chosen for parking re-allocation was around Rintoul St and the southern part of Adelaide Rd, but they had tried hard to make sure residents would be able to find parking closer to home.
While the scheme had been designed in a way that commuters would be pushed further out, they would still get a car park.
He referred to Mein St, which had 148 car parks. Data showed 50 residents’ vehicles had been recorded as parking on the road. Since then 59 spaces had been changed to time restricted, which left 89 spaces unrestricted for all day parking.
“Our surveys show that actually overnight there were 70 residents’ cars parked on the street, so we're only allocating 59 spaces today although there are 70 residents, because there's only 50 of them on the road during the day.”
He said the scheme would provide certainty for residents that they could find a free spot close to their homes.
In the future, as population density increased and demand for the spots increased, eligibility criteria would be introduced to rank who needed the parks the most.
Barker said he was not asking for the committee to make a decision on how the scheme would operate, just guidance to take it forward to be recommended next year.
Free said she disagreed with the assumption that the cars parked on Mein St overnight were residents’ cars, as overnight hospital workers also parked there.
Te Whatu Ora representative Jay Hadfield said the organisation had been working to develop a plan to create other options for staff driving to the hospital, and working to increase car parks for staff on-site.
“So we're recognising that that there was a challenge and that both supply and demand interventions are required.”
On behalf of Metlink, Alex Campbell said the chapter was being closed on the bus driver shortage, with an end date in sight for eight to 18 days.
Service enhancements were being planned for Newtown, including buses being offered every 15 minutes through the day from January 28, from Strathmore park through to Wilton via Newtown.
This would include extra early services from 5.25am for hospital workers moving from the east to the west.