Kathie Furlong: Solution to parking woes at Park Island

Kathie Furlong

Were you one of the hundreds of families who tried to find a park at Park Island when bringing your children to Saturday rugby, soccer or hockey this winter?

Did you drive around in vain searching for a park in the carpark and end up parking halfway to the Taradale Club or around by the dog exercise area beyond the cemetery entrance?

This is a common experience on a Saturday morning from April to the end of August as hundreds of families bring their young children to sport at Park Island.

We are talking about children aged from 4 to about 10 who are playing in the younger grades. By the time the intermediate age children are playing, the parking spaces are freeing up. These are children who need the help of their parents to find the field they are playing on.

They can't be dropped off to find their own way while Mum or Dad parks the car miles away. In frustration, some people park partly on yellow lines and earn a $40 ticket for their indiscretion.

As a grandparent who has five grandchildren playing most weekend of the winter on Park Island, almost every weekend, someone talks to me about the lack of parking and the cynical presence of traffic wardens ticketing cars, particularly at the beginning of the season.

They have either forgotten that I am no longer a city councillor or they think I still know people there who will listen to me.

Last season, I came up with a sticking plastersolution. If a footbridge was put across the Westminster Ave drain at the western and eastern ends of the playing fields, parents could park in Westminster Ave and access the fields at those ends without a long walk to the main entrance and then back towards those fields. Here's an example of how this simple solution would work:

At 9am 4 teams of 10 small children play rugby at the two eastern-most fields. That's 40 cars at least (not counting grandparents!). Before that game finishes, another 40 cars arrive with the children who will play at 10am. If the footbridge was there, 80 cars could park in Westminster Ave, thus freeing up parking spaces in the carparks. The same scenario could apply if another footbridge was put at the eastern end, towards Parklands, to serve the eastern-most soccer fields.

I call this a sticking plastersolution as I know that the master plan for the future of Park Island already includes these bridges but the implementation of the plan is some time in the future.

What I am talking about is a footbridge similar to the one already in place behind the hockey fields, crossing the newly-diverted stream. It is two railway irons with wooden planking across. If I lived nearby, I would put my painter's plank across on a Saturday to help the situation.

I have talked to Mayor Dalton about this issue. He acknowledges the problem and sympathises but has been unable to get any action on the issue. He is told that it's a small issue and doesn't warrant spending money on at this stage.

Apparently, because the drain is a flood plain, not a creek, my simple solution is not good enough. It may be a small issue in the big scheme of things but it is a big nuisance week after week for hundreds of families who come to use our fabulous sports grounds and enjoy the fresh air and exercise.

The season for junior rugby and soccer has ended, but unless the council decides that it can take up my solution and build a simple but safe footbridge over the summer, the same problem will be there come April 2018.

If you support my suggestion, an email to bill.dalton@napier.govt.nz might cause the council to take another look at this simple solution to this very frustrating issue.

Kathie Furlong is a former deputy mayor of Napier. Views expressed here are the writer's opinion and not the newspaper's. Email: editor@hbtoday.co.nz