Ōrākei’s elected representatives have welcomed increased enforcement of people parking over the two hour limit in Remuera’s Clonbern Road carpark.
Auckland Transport announced this morning that it has closed the top deck of the carpark following advice from independent engineers, to allow more detailed inspections to take place after they identified potentially dangerous structural issues.
This afternoon AT staff were handing out flyers reminding people that parking in the building's remaining spaces is restricted to 120 minutes and is for customers of local businesses.
AT will be increasing enforcement in the building from Friday morning.
Ōrākei ward councillor Desley Simpson and Ōrākei Local Board chair Kit Parkinson say while they support the carpark's closure for health and safety reasons and to allow further inspection, the temporary loss of 70 carparks is a major concern.
“On top of the Clonbern Road upper deck parking closure, ANZ’s 70 carparks are currently closed for maintenance works until mid-December so this couldn’t come at a worse time for retailers and the community,” says Cr Simpson.
“The local board chair and I met onsite with the Remuera Business Association and engineers this morning and I am pleased that AT have responded to joint concerns and will be stepping up monitoring and enforcement in the rest of the carpark for those who stay beyond the two hours.”
Mr Parkinson agrees and says if the top deck remains closed or further restrictions are required, more thought needs to be put into what other parking options could be made available in Remuera.
“You only need to stand here for a few minutes to see how busy it is so if all or part of it can no longer be used, that is a concern for local business.”
Cr Simpson says one option could be to introduce free 60-minute restricted parking on Remuera Road to prevent commuters and local workers parking there all day and freeing it up for short-term use for shoppers.
“This has the support of the Remuera Business Association but again, for this suggestion to be successful it needs to be policed by AT.”
Auckland Transport’s parking team is currently looking at other options for altering the on-street parking which may include removing or altering other time restrictions it the area.
Closure a precautionary measure
Auckland Transport says that closure of the top deck is precautionary and that there are no immediate safety concerns.
Its engineers were on site today and more detailed independent inspections will be done tomorrow.
More information about local parking options available on the Remuera Business Association website.
