Rob Rattenbury: 'As ratepayers, we can be a touchy bunch'

Whanganui's dated parking meters (pictured) have recently been upgraded. Photo / Bevan Conley

Comment

I seldom come into town nowadays, except for health appointments, coffee or lunch with mates or those few business meetings that cannot be done on Zoom or Messenger.

But now and again I have to front up for some reason. On with the "going-out gear", into the mighty Ford Focus. No public transport where I live, and off to town in a spray of stone chips and rubber.

The other day I popped into town for a coffee at Mischief, and as usual, I managed to dock the red beast outside on Guyton St.

Being a conscientious honest sort of guy I went to pay for parking. The machines are all new.

Technology has arrived. It's all eftpos and Visa cards now but there is still a facility for a cash sale for convenience.

First of all, I could not see the screen due to sunlight. So bending over making a shadow I could see what I had to do.

Now I had already had a dust-up with another machine outside the Rutland a couple of weeks ago, trying to pay for my disability park.

I had tried to use my Visa. No matter what I did or how I did it nothing happened. I had no coins so what to do?

In a huff I let the machine win, stalked off to my lunch-date muttering about technology and the chance of getting yet another ticket.

So back to Guyton Street. I slipped my coin in and it fell out. I did this again and pushed some buttons, it still fell out.

I muttered some Shakespear that I am familiar with, and considered kicking the machine but decided to be mature about it.

Just then another older chap arrived with his lady wanting to use the machine. I was a bit late so wished them the best of luck and left.

The poor guy was still at the machine waving his card, trying to make shadows, talking to it, talking to himself, when I came past a few minutes later.

He had by then been abandoned by his lady. He seemed to be a much kinder man than me but he also gave up.

This is progress.

Now to be fair the Whanganui District Council, I must say I missed the introduction of them.

I assume that the project manager would have instructed the parking warden people to act as educators for the first couple of weeks, to simply show drivers how to use this technology and I missed it.

As for sun-strike on the screens. Obviously, an Act of God beyond the responsibility of mere humans.

Little things like parking meters that are for good law-abiding ratepayers trying to do the right thing and silly holes in roads annoy people.

This is simple housekeeping, doing stuff that councils need to do to provide a decent place for us all to live. It's what we pay our rates for.

Saying that I generally feel that we are very well looked after by our council staff.

As ratepayers, we can be a touchy bunch and the challenges local councils face today are huge and varied compared to even 10 years ago.

Our beautiful town is growing and thriving, bringing all these modern aids of urban living to us.

Now I know I will harden up and learn how to operate the parking meters in time but at the moment I am having a wee bit of a sook.

I would never be a councillor.

I take my hat off to anyone who wants to be, your heart is in the right place. Luckily I am not a meeting-type person, tending to want to just get on and do stuff without the need to talk about it all day.

I have met quite a few councillors and the odd mayor in my 40 years in Whanganui and I can honestly say I have liked them all in their own ways.

They all had a couple of things in common, a desire to make Whanganui as good a place as possible for all of us and a great self-belief.

This is my first column for some time about my lovely town. I must say I have really enjoyed writing it.