Parking tickets up but complaints down

Increased carpark monitoring has had a rise in tickets issued but a drop in complaints about the lack of carparks in Cambridge and Te Awamutu over the past three months.

It's been eight months since Waipā District Council employed an extra full-time enforcement officer with a significant focus on monitoring time-restricted parking spaces in the two towns.

Council’s compliance manager Karl Tutty said the team had received positive feedback from residents about the increase in available parking in the central business districts, as a direct result of more monitoring.

“Over the past four months, we have issued 231 parking infringement notices, mainly for vehicles overstaying in time-limited parking in Te Awamutu and Cambridge’s CBD and we’ve certainly noticed through casual observation that there appears to be an increase in the availability of carparks.”

Council’s compliance team also had other wins across the district, said Tutty.

“We’ve had no rubbish bags left at the old ‘unofficial collection points’ on Hydro and Maungakawa roads since we installed large signage at those locations, which is a very positive outcome.

“Both of these sites were phased out back in February so it’s very pleasing to see the residents no longer having to deal with bad odours, litter and vermin that these old collection sites had attracted. These sites followed the phasing out of a similar site at Baffin Street in Pirongia.

“It’s great to see people taking heed of the warning signs and we will continue to monitor these sites to encourage this to remain the status quo.”

Others have not stopped littering elsewhere, with 53 littering complaints received by the team over the past three months, seven of which were issued infringement notices due to the compliance team’s investigations Tutty added.

Rubbish collection in Waipā is not a Council service as it is not funded through rates, it is owned and operated by privately-run businesses. A list of local kerbsite rubbish collection providers can be viewed at waipadc.govt.nz/rubbish.