Hamilton councillor Mark Bunting's car was snapped parked in a car park reserved for mobility cardholders outside Claudelands Event Centre for a candidate event. Photo / Facebook
Hamilton councillor Mark Bunting's car was snapped parked in a car park reserved for mobility cardholders outside Claudelands Event Centre for a candidate event. Photo / Facebook
More Hamilton councillors have been outed parking in car parks reserved for mobility card holders - just days after their colleague was slammed on social media for doing a similar act.
Photos have emerged on social media showing sign-written cars belonging to councillors Mark Bunting, Dave Macpherson and Gary Mallett in parks reserved for mobility car holders outside Claudelands Event Centre.
The councillors say they had no idea they were mobility car parks and would not have parked there if they had known.
The temporary mobility parks are not painted yellow, but have blue parking signs with a wheelchair symbol and the words, "Mobility Card Holders Only".
Public Admission - a few days ago at the Claudelands election meeting, I mistakenly parked in this disability car park...
West ward councillor Siggi Henry copped a strong public backlash last week after she parked her red sign-written hatchback in a mobility car park outside the Hamilton Gardens because she was running late for a citizenship ceremony.
Photos of the three councillors' cars were snapped prior to Henry's indiscretion on the afternoon of a meet the candidate event followed by the Mike McRoberts-hosted mayoral debate on September 11.
Three Hamilton councillors' cars were parked in temporary mobility car parks at Claudelands that are marked only by blue signs indicating they are for mobility cardholders only. Photo / Facebook
Mallett said he had parked there along with Macpherson, Bunting and "I think half of council". He said he moved as soon as someone pointed out to him that it was a mobility car park.
Mallett said there was only signage on the road for the park he was in and he was used to seeing a wheelchair marking on the road.
"I was there. Someone told me had we had parked in a disability car park and we moved. End of story."
When asked how long he was parked there for, he said: "Oh for God's sakes, about 10 minutes. Okay, you are getting boring. Bye," before hanging up on the reporter.
Dave Macpherson's car was parked in a car park reserved for mobility car parks at Claudelands Event Centre. Photo / Facebook
Bunting said he would never have parked there if he had known it was a mobility park and ran to move his car as soon as someone told him a few minutes later.
"As you can probably see I had reversed into the park as had Dave and Garry and a couple of other cars and hadn't even seen the sign which is about two and a half metres up," he said.
"So no, if I'd had any inkling at all that it was a disabled carpark I certainly wouldn't have parked there."
'NO EXCUSE - THE SIGNS WERE UP THERE'
He was now speaking with staff about how to make the markings better as he did not think the temporary mobility car parks were very useful.
Macpherson, who is the chair of council's growth and infrastructure committee, admitted he stuffed up and should have looked up and opened his eyes to see the signs on the poles.
He said he wasn't going to try to make excuses for why he hadn't seen them. He estimated their cars would have been there for between 30 and 40 minutes.
"Apart from parking across two of them. I did as bad as she [Henry] did for the time I was there. I accept that. I'm not going to try and weasel out of it."
He took to Facebook last night apologising to the disability sector.
"Public admission - a few days ago...I mistakenly parked in this disability park at the Claudelands Events Centre [along with a couple of other councillors who made the same mistake].
"I shifted my car as soon as this was pointed out to me - after about 30 minutes or so - as did the other councillors.''
He said they were told later that it is not a fulltime disability carpark and is only used for big events.
"But that is no excuse, as the signs were up there. My apologies to the disability sector.''
Hamilton City Council general manager of venues, tourism, and major events Sean Murray said along with the three yellow permanent mobility car parks, when the venue was busy the other parks in the section became temporary mobility car parks when the sign was flipped down to display the sign.
CCS Disability Action national manager access and infrastructure BJ Clark said while the temporary parks could be confusing and felt temporary ground markings would be more effective, the reality was if the sign was visible then it should be reserved for mobility cardholders.
Clark said it was particularly disappointing more Hamilton councillors were breaking council's rules and he expected community leaders to do better.
"According to their own rule, [they're] abusing the park.
"We work hard and spend a lot of time and effort and money trying to educate people on the need to not abuse mobility parking and when our leaders fail to respect that, then what sort of look is it for the general public?
"We hope our leaders are educated and are understanding of the needs of their constituents and anyone who parks in a mobility park you've got to wonder..."
