Parking woes continue

PROVISIONS for a temporary car park to relieve some of Queenstown’s parking woes have been set, but some Queenstown Lakes District councillors are concerned locals may be left out of pocket.

The 168space Lakeview temporary car park above James Clouston Memorial Park is set to replace the Ballarat St car park, which closed last year to be used as a depot for CBD infrastructure projects.

Ongoing town centre street upgrading had also resulted in a loss of parking.

At a meeting yesterday, the QLDC infrastructure committee agreed to an hourly rate of $3 with parking restricted to a maximum of 10 hours at the Lakeview site.

Parking machines would be installed within the site and campervans would not be permitted.

Three parks would be set aside for use by disabled people.

Cr Penny Clark said she struggled to support the $3anhour charge, and said it could prevent CBD workers from using the park.

The fee was inconsistent with other parking in the area, and would not ‘‘enthuse’’ workers to park away from the CBD, she said.

‘‘We’re trying to encourage people to use this car park to get them out of town.

‘‘I feel we should be doing something to counteract the fact that we promised our community two car park buildings — we’ve then taken away 130 car parks.

‘‘We said years ago we were going to put 1100 car parks into town because we’d taken them away,’’ Cr Clark said.

‘‘I’m sorry but no, I can’t support the $3 unless we put the others in town up, which it doesn’t appear we’re going to do.’’

Cr Niki Gladding said while parking provisions, including fees, were part of a wider plan to move people out of private cars and towards other transport options, there were few alternatives at present.

‘‘For anyone who does work in Queenstown they have to drive in and park somewhere. There are some people who still have to drive [due to no public transport] and we have to cater for them.’’