Busted: Auckland Transport staff parking illegally

An Auckland Transport car parked across a footpath and broken yellow lines in Tiverton Rd, New Windsor yesterday. Photo / Supplied

Two Auckland Transport staff are in the gun for parking illegally yesterday across a footpath and broken yellow lines.

The women were photographed inspecting a bus-stop in Tiverton Rd, New Windsor, while their car with a large AT logo on its door was parked nearby.

A man who sent the picture to the Herald, but didn't want his name published, said he had been ticketed for parking on a kerb and didn't see why staff of the council's transport organisation should be allowed to do so.

"Surely Auckland Transport employees are required to follow the same bylaws," he said.

Auckland Transport communications general manager Wally Thomas said the incident was unacceptable, and the organisation would check through its fleet records to identity the staff involved so they could be spoken to.

"All staff are expected to follow the same rules and bylaws as anybody else, and we take a very dim view of this sort of thing," he said.

He could not say what action might be taken against the women, but acknowledged that an infringement notice could not be issued on the basis of a supplied photo.

Only authorised parking officers could do that, based on evidence they could gather at the scene of an offence.

Mr Thomas was confident the women were not parking officers.

The incident follows a backdown by Auckland Transport three weeks ago, in which it rescinded fines issued to the owners of 27 vehicles parked with wheels over the kerbs of two narrow Orakei roads.

A petition raised by the Auckland Ratepayers' Alliance against the fines gained more than 2000 signatures.

Less than a week after the fines were issued in a single overnight blitz, an Auckland Council car was photographed parked illegally across a footpath of one of the two roads, Tautari St.

The next day, Auckland Mayor Len Brown was dobbed in by a Herald reader after his chauffeur-driven car was photographed in early August, parked illegally in a loading zone in Newmarket while he attended what his staff described as a business meeting.

Auckland Transport has in the meantime disclosed 446 incidents recorded on GPS devices in its cars in the eight months to August 31 in which staff were recorded exceeding 110km/h - including one at 126km/h.