Car Park Disability Status Disputed

Published 13 Mar 2015

How can you tell when a line has been crossed? It's a question on which two councils cannot seem to agree. 

Wellington resident Maika Bennett tweeted a photograph of the car with the comment: "Some slightly inconsiderate parking from a Hastings District Council car in Kilbirnie today."

The Hastings council tried to argue yesterday that the spaces were "not officially designated disabled parks".

But Wellington City Council spokesman Richard MacLean confirmed they were "definitely disability car parks and are heavily used as such".

"The yellow, internationally recognised signs on the asphalt are usually a dead giveaway."

Hastings group manager corporate and customer services Mike Maguire said: "There is no signpost designating the parks as disabled in the photograph and the lines on the pavement are white, not yellow, as they would be for official disabled parks.

"The need to park at an angle was due to circumstances at the time the vehicle was parked. This is not apparent in the photograph, as other vehicles that were present at the time the council vehicle parked are not shown."

Hastings Mayor Lawrence Yule disagreed, saying the staffer should not have parked there. "If it looks like a disabled car park it is a disabled car park," he said.

The car's driver is one of the council's swimming pool staff and was in Wellington on authorised business.

Source: The Dominion Post