Park smarter — or pay

Parking fouls at sports grounds will be punished this winter.

Hamilton City Council wardens will be monitoring hotspots and they’re encouraging anyone ferrying kids to and from sport to ‘‘park smarter’’.

Several junior sporting codes – netball, football and rugby – get going in May, which puts pressure on streets around the city’s parks and reserves.

Parking across driveways or bang in the middle of two parking spaces – Hamilton wardens have seen it all and they’re asking for it to stop.

Sports grounds can be surrounded by the same kind of traffic chaos often seen around school gates, city transportation spokeswoman Robyn Denton said.

Nearby residents are probably mentally preparing for another sporting season, she said, and Hamilton City Council gets the occasional complaint from someone blocked in.

There are also complaints of cars on footpaths, obstructing people on mobility scooters, in wheelchairs, or pushing prams.

‘‘We’ve got people who need to walk, who need to use mobility scooters, mums pushing pushchairs.

‘‘Then the residents – they need to be able to get in and out of their houses.’’

The particular pressure points are spread through the city around the following grounds: Dominion, Minogue, Marist, Grosvenor, Flagstaff and Jansen parks.

Denton’s advice is to allow enough time to pick a safe spot.

‘‘Think about the walk to the park actually being part of your warm-up.’’

Council parking wardens will be patrolling pressure points around Hamilton.