Council rejects park ‘n’ ride request
A request for $25,000 to help pay for Fieldays’ free park ‘n’ ride service has been rejected by the Waipa District Council.
New Zealand National Fieldays Society sent in the request to the Waipa District Council but the council turned it down because it does not want to set a precedent for others to follow.
The annual Fieldays event attracted over 130,000 visitors and contributed over $530 million to the national economy.
Managing the high level of traffic and people heading to the Mystery Creek event was a major task.
The society wanted to increase its park ‘n’ ride service to ease the traffic burden during the three-day event.
The service cost the society $45,000.
The Waikato Regional Council dismissed a similar application from the society and suggested it approach district and city councils.
The $25,000 would have been used to extend the current park ‘n’ ride service to include a Lamb Street and Kaipaki Road route which would start and return to the Cambridge BMX track near Milton Street, on the Cambridge Green Belt.
The society believed the new route would serve 31 per cent of Fieldays visitors from the east and south of the Waipa district.
Waipa mayor Jim Mylchreest said the council acknowledged the economic benefits Fieldays generated but could not approve the application.
‘‘It would be inappropriate for the council to fund a service for a commercial venture such as Fieldays and didn’t want to set a precedent,’’ he said.
Cambridge Chamber of Com- merce chief executive Tania Witheford called the council’s decision ‘‘dissapointing’’.
‘‘Given Fieldays contribution to the region, council has shown an unwillingness to support initiatives designed to improve the experience for visitors.
‘‘There are plenty of examples where council’s use incentives to use public transports to avoid congestion.
‘‘Fieldays is 50 years in the making, and it continues to evolve and get better every year; we must evolve and get better with it.’’
Fieldays had success with its park ‘n’ ride services from the Hamilton CBD and The Base in Te Rapa, over the past four years.
New Zealand National Fieldays Chief Executive Peter Nation said the application to the Waipa council was ‘‘a reasonable request’’.
‘‘Park ‘n’ rides based on historic figures would ease congestion, removing over 15,000 people and over 3000 cars from the roads.’’
Nation told the council, Fieldays’ use of buses to transport passengers from strategic points had increased and with great success.
‘‘In 2017 we moved over 11,000 passengers by bus effectively taking 1350 cars off the road.
‘‘This is well up on 2014 where we moved 4145 passengers as our first attempt to use public transport.’’
Nation said the $45,000 cost had been absorbed by the society because it wanted to keep the service free.