Carpark sale on hold for now
Warkworth’s only all day parking building has won a small reprieve from Auckland Council’s chopping block.
The fate of the Baxter St carpark hung in the balance at Tuesday’s meeting of the council’s Finance and Performance committee. The council wish to sell it with the view that it does not deliver a current or planned service.
Rodney Local Board chairwoman Beth Houlbrooke met councillors before they made their decision saying her board didn’t endorse the sale of carpark.
Another level to the carpark is included in the board’s 2014-2017 plan which had been signed off by the governing body, Houlbrooke said. With next to no public transport in the town and none out of it, residents used it to meet and carpool to work or to use the bus stop across the road where private operators offered services.
‘‘It is the only place to park in town if you are taking a trip out of town for the day or overnight,’’ Houlbrooke said.
A lack of access from the east side of the town and incomplete footpaths from the south, east and north meant even residents who lived close to the CBD had no choice but to use their cars, as did rural residents, she said. Thirteen hundred homes are in the process of being consented in Warkworth North and council plans show the town will quadruple in size in the next 20 years.
‘‘So the Baxter St carpark must not only be retained as one of the most important current pieces of infrastructure in town, it must be developed to add additional parking now,’’ Houlbrooke said. She questioned why no maintenance budget was attached to the building, which now had weather tightness issues and required urgent maintenance of around $500,000.
‘‘I think this is just a way of getting out of having to maintain the building by just flicking it on and hoping someone else will fix up the mess,’’ Houlbrooke said.
The committee deferred its decision for the disposal of the land until the Auckland Transport Strategy team investigates parking options, including all day options, with at least the same amount or a greater number of carparks as the Baxter St property.
It also directed staff to investigate the urgency and funding required for weather tightness and remedial work, and maintenance.