Waiheke commuters win parking meeting

Faye Storer

Waiheke Island ferry commuters rebelling against new waterfront parking charges have won a meeting with Auckland City Council officials to find a way around a funding impasse.

City transport committee chairman Richard Simpson told 14 Waiheke residents at his committee's monthly meeting that it could not overturn a resolution of the full council.

But the committee agreed that senior transport officials should meet Waiheke councillor Faye Storer and commuter representatives "to discuss the current investment in parking around Matiatia".

Ms Storer was worried that a consumer boycott of pay and display machines, which are reportedly being vandalised almost nightly, could leave the council short of target annual revenue of $135,000 from the 90 parking spaces.

Commuter spokeswoman Sandy Hall said Waiheke residents were willing to contribute to the council's $12.5 million purchase of a development company to block unpopular intensification plans for Matiatia.

But she said this should be done through a targeted rate, or wharf charges shared by visitors to the island, rather than asking low-income commuters to pay $6 a day for previously free parking.

Ms Hall said a petition signed by more than 1100 Waiheke residents in five days represented 20 per cent of the island's adult population, whom she estimated earned an average $7000 a year less than other Aucklanders.

She said the parking charges, boycotted by many commuters who crammed into buses or parked in Oneroa and walked to the ferries, would push the cost of getting to work above $380 a month.

Commuters say few people are using the 11 solar-powered pay and display machines, some of which have been vandalised after costing the city up to $80,000, but council staff say numbers are picking up later each day.