Retailers reminded of parking
Frustration at retailers ignoring an agreement and using car parks in front of other stores in a Manawatu¯ town has come to a head.
Feilding business owners and employees have, for years, followed an informal agreement to refrain from parking outside shops when coming to work and instead use public car parks in Aorangi St, to free up town centre parks for potential customers.
But some have slipped back into bad habits and a public meeting, held by Feilding and District Promotion, is set to reinforce the arrangement.
Gracie’s owner Kerry Gracie said the issue wasn’t new, but was made worse by Feilding’s growth in population.
‘‘Parking is changing and we’re running out of space.
‘‘Retailers might just need to walk a bit further and people in the CBD need to respect [free parking].’’
Manawatu¯ mayor Helen Worboys said the agreement was a part of the ‘‘friendly Feilding’’ identity and the small number of retailers causing the issue needed to be publicly named.
‘‘If you want to stuff up the customers car parking start outside your own store and see what your customers think.’’
Business owners should include it as a clause in employee contracts, she said. ‘‘It should be better monitored. The handful of offenders probably won’t even go to the meeting.’’
Chairman Jason Smith said the agreement relied on the ‘‘good will’’ of retailers.
‘‘There’s nothing enforcing it. It’s more about people getting along and just being a good citizen and neighbour to the business next to you.’’
Free parking was unique to Feilding, Smith said, but it shouldn’t be abused.
If the business community decided it did not want to continue the informal agreement the matter would be referred to the Manawatu¯ District Council for action.
‘‘There’s no law or anything enforcing it. If people don’t agree there’s no real consequence other than to name and shame them.
‘‘As a township we’d love to see free parking continue for the sake of retailers.’’
Former manager of Feilding Promotion Michael Ford looked at the possibility of building a two-storey parking lot in Feilding, but said the costs were too high.
In the proposal, parks on one level would be charged to retailers and business owners for between $45 to $70 per week. The bottom level would be a 1000 metre squared free public carpark.
It might be possible to incorporate a parking level into a new development, Ford said, but anything other than ground level parking was expensive to build, and there would be few people willing to pay more than $10 to $15 per week per carpark, given that there were free parks close by.
The public meeting to discuss car parking issues is on Wednesday, June 20 from 6pm at the Feilding Information Centre.