City left with one parking warden

INVERCARGILL is down to a single parking warden as the city council works to plug the gap left by recent departures.

Tensions were rising as food delivery drivers and goods trucks flouted parking rules, a councillor warned.

While three people normally patrolled the city’s streets, just one was left due to staff moving to other opportunities, Invercargill City Council environmental services manager Gillian Cavanagh said.

The council had been shorthanded for more than four weeks.

‘‘We do have processes in place such as using other staff as appropriate and scheduling patrols to cover priority areas on a daily basis, as well as regular patrols through the week,’’ Ms Cavanagh said.

‘‘This ensures we continue to have a presence in the community, cover areas of concern and requests for service, as we work to fill these two vacancies.’’

The issue came to light during a community wellbeing committee meeting last week where disruptive drivers in the CBD were discussed.

Cr Ria Bond said she had observed issues in Esk St where goods and services vehicles stopped to offload in unofficial parking spaces next to the mall, and food delivery drivers parked on the footpath.

Cr Bond said tensions were escalating between the public and those breaching the rules.

‘‘How often are these breaches being monitored, and what can we do to ensure the safety of public comes first?’’ she asked.

Ms Cavanagh said the council was down to only one parking officer which made it ‘‘a little bit more difficult’’.

When Cr Darren Ludlow suggested issuing infringement notices as a way of tackling the perpetrators, Cr Bond pushed back.

‘‘But we can’t catch them because we’ve only got one person to monitor.’’

Cr Alex Crackett said the council needed to adapt to obvious changes in community behaviour.

Ride shares and delivery services were not going anywhere, and the council needed to develop services for them in the same way they did when taxis appeared, she said.

The council manages 831 metered parking spaces.

Ms Cavanagh said the organisation was recruiting for the vacancies and expected to be fully staffed ‘‘very soon’’.