Parking proposals postponed

A controversial plan to turn various citycentre car parks into lease parks has been put on hold by New Plymouth District Council after community blowback.

Several main streets in the central business district were set to be leased to try and partly make up for the loss of the multi-storey Downtown car park.

Yesterday, the council’s strategy and operations committee considered whether to turn 18 spaces on Powderham St into 14 lease parks and four timed spots, and a number of spaces on Devon St East into leased spaces. The aim was to make up for the loss of the multi-storey Downtown car park, which closed at Christmas.

Submitters presented to the meeting, concerned about losing client parking.

Sylvia Huitson, a counsellor, said she had been in the Powderham Business Centre

for 12 years. If someone was a client of hers, they could be suicidal, have posttraumatic stress disorder, or work at the hospital but see a counsellor on their lunch break, she said. ‘‘You may have seen an accident or you may have been picking up body parts on the road.

‘‘Parking four blocks away will cause a huge amount of added distress for a person who is already not coping.’’

Infrastructure and planning manager David Langford told councillors they had ‘‘tried to find a balance between all of the competing needs of car parking in the CBD’’. It was not a money-maker nor safety related, but put forward after a review, he said. ‘‘These are entirely discretionary changes.’’

Councillors voted to let the Powderham St and Devon St East proposals lay on the table until further consultation could be done.