Mayor backs plan for more city carparks

Auckland Mayor Len Brown. Photo / Greg Bowker

Auckland Mayor Len Brown is contemplating a multimillion-dollar splurge that could encourage more cars into the central and Manukau city centres.

The council is planning to buy a 50 per cent stake in the new Britomart carpark in central Auckland and build a multi-storey carpark at Manukau.

Both carparks will be revenue-gathering sources for the council, and the commercial goal will be to fill them with cars.

Mr Brown, who has put public transport at the top of his to-do list, yesterday expressed enthusiasm for investing ratepayers' money in more carparks.

"An effective, integrated transport system is about giving people options.

"The new Manukau rail link project does just that as an integrated park-and-ride facility for those choosing to use public transport and as parking for the new Manukau Institute of Technology campus and workers in the area," Mr Brown said.

He said the majority of parking at Manukau was held by the shopping centre and was time restricted, which did not help in combining driving and public transport.

The mayor's emphasis on the public transport benefits of the Manukau carpark could not be confirmed by Auckland Transport.

Last night, Auckland Transport spokeswoman Sharon Hunter said the number of commercial and park-and-ride spaces, and whether these would be free like other park-and-ride stations in Auckland, was still being worked on.

David Rankin, who heads Auckland Council Property, another council body looking at carparking options in Manukau, said the new carpark would have a park-and-ride component, but would also cater for a "phenomenal demand" from Rainbows End, the courts, police and MIT.

Mr Brown declined to comment on the Britomart carpark until the Auckland Council Property council-controlled body had examined options for buying a half share at a discounted price or receiving a cash sum from the Britomart developer, Cooper and Company

Mr Rankin said part of the 2004 Britomart above-ground development was to build a carpark.

Now that the carpark was nearly complete, Auckland Property was deciding whether to exercise a development right to take an ownership stake or the money.

The final decision would be made by council, he said.

Mr Rankin said the carpark was "obviously going to be a business that will run at a profit."

A third of the 1230 parking space were available for casual use under the terms of the resource consent, although more would be available, at least in the short-term, he said.

Auckland Council transport committee chairman Mike Lee said he supported carparks that served public transport, and opposed carparks that competed with public transport.

Mr Lee, who is also on the Auckland Transport board, did not know of plans for the Manukau carpark.

He said the Britomart carpark appeared to be competing with the Britomart transport terminal, and supported the council taking up the ownership option so the "high-rise building" could be converted into family-sized apartments.

Meanwhile, Auckland Transport is refusing to comment on making cashiers redundant at four central city carparks as part of a modernisation project, except to say there will be more payment options from next month.

Northern Amalgamated Workers Union secretary Ray Bianchi said he understood that six cashiers, who work at the Victoria St, Downtown, Civic and Karangahape Rd carparks, would lose their jobs at the end of the month.