Marlborough Express - Weekend Express
Picton revved up over truck parking
Large trucks are parking in the streets of Picton and not in the stop built for them – and authorities want to know why.
Representatives from New Zealand’s two largest trucking associations says the culprit could be Port Marlborough’s parking fees, but the port suspects truckies like being near their accommodation in the town.
Whatever the reason, Picton residents are divided over whether a solution should be worked into its redevelopment project, which is needed due to KiwiRail’s new, larger Cook Strait ferries.
Residents have already given up part of an old rugby pitch for a truck stop after roads damaged by the Kaiko¯ura earthquake left trucks arriving out of sync with ferries and waiting around town.
Marlborough District Council chief executive Mark Wheeler said the level of demand the Waitohi Domain stop saw after the quake had since ‘‘gone’’, despite a step-up in trucks catching the ferries.
‘‘We’d like to see the domain fully utilised, so we need to work out why [truckies] are not parking there . . . We need to look at where they’re parking now, why they’re making the choices they do, and whether there are other places that we could encourage them to.’’
Wheeler said the council planned to sit down with Port Marlborough, KiwiRail, Bluebridge, Waka Kotahi New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) and other port users to find a solution.
The council could outlaw truck parking on certain streets using a gentleman’s agreement with truck companies, which was not legally binding, or changing the council’s traffic bylaw, which was.
‘‘We’ve got to make sure that whatever we do works ... We’d prefer to negotiate something with trucking companies rather than take a heavy-handed approach,’’ Wheeler said.
Work to address the issue would begin once the Environmental Protection Authority made a decision on the application to redevelop the town’s ferry terminal, and once a report was released on how transport changes would be implemented.
Wheeler touched on the topic during a public meeting in Picton last month on the multimilliondollar ferry terminal upgrade.
Port Marlborough chief executive Rhys Welbourn said at the meeting that truck drivers parked close to their accommodation. ‘‘It’s not ideal . . . It’s difficult to change those behaviours.’’
Welbourn’s comments caused a flare-up in the audience, with one attendee saying that authorities had made ‘‘no attempt’’ to change driver behaviours. Several said that Nelson Square had turned into a truck stop.
But residents said truckies were ‘‘hurting no-one’’. Nelson Square resident David Coozes said parking trucks overnight was ‘‘perfectly legal’’ and ‘‘not a bother to anyone’’.
Eleven-year-old Darren Vanwyk said the drivers had little impact on the neighbourhood, apart from the occasional cigarette butt. Crow Tavern duty manager George Emorfopoulos urged people to remember drivers were ‘‘human beings, not an inconvenience’’.
Truck driver Peter Griffin, who rented by Nelson Square, said Port Marlborough had left truck companies with nowhere else to park. ‘‘It used to be free to have a truck parked [at the Domain], then the port authority got hungry and started charging companies.’’
It cost trucks $10 to park at the Waitohi Domain for 24 hours.
Griffin thought the best solution was to build a free parking lot for trucks – a thought echoed by Road Transport Association’s Marlborough chair and Heagney Bros co-owner Peter Heagney.
‘‘The only problem is there’s limited space in town,’’ he said.
Heagney believed the reason truck companies shied away from Waitohi Domain was because it cost them money.
New Zealand Truck Association chief executive David Boyce also believed parking fees played a factor, alongside driver work caps.
Truck drivers could work up to 13 hours a day. Those who reached that limit – including those who hit the cap while on the Cook Strait ferries – had to rest at least 10 hours before driving again.
‘‘If a truck driver’s hours run out on one of the ferries, they have a matter of minutes to get off the ferry and park up,’’ Boyce said.
‘‘I can certainly understand residents’ concerns about trucks parking outside their homes, but it’s not like truckies are trying to get off-side with residents. It really is up to the council and NZTA to provide an area for trucks to park.’’