Te Puke parking stoush sorted with more parks for town centre

An additional 13 car parking spaces are to be creted in Te Puke town centre after an error was discovered in the way spaces had been marked out.

A stoush between Western Bay of Plenty District Council and a group of Te Puke retailers over missing parking spaces has finally been resolved.

A redevelopment of the town centre involving the single laning of the main shopping street that began last year resulted in the loss of parking spaces in the street.

The problem was, no-one could agree on how many spaces had been lost.

The council claimed in a statement in October the number was eight. Te Puke Business Strategies Group, representing some of the town's retailers, claimed the number was 24.

The stand-off has now been resolved with the council saying there was a mistake when parking spaces were marked out.

Work will be carried out on Jellicoe St next week to increase the number of parking spaces in the town centre by 13 in time for Christmas shoppers.

The reinstatement of the spaces follows the discovery of an error between the original plan prepared by town centre upgrade architects Boffa Miskell and the physical work done by the Western Bay of Plenty District Council's roading contractor, WestLink, said the council's infrastructure services group manager, Gary Allis.

Allis said the mistake was highlighted to the council in a letter by business group and verified by council staff and Boffa Miskell.

"The mistake stemmed from the contractor not following the parking plan correctly, marking some parks wider in isolation of the others, which reduced the number spaces in the main street."

Emily Schwartfeger, from the business group, said the thorough reinvestigation of the issue vindicated the stance of the group that had consistently argued there were more than eight parks lost in the new main street layout.

The figures of the two parties are still at odds.

However, group spokesman Murray Holyoake, who owns shop Xcetera, said this was accounted for by the recent marking out of an additional space at the western end of the town centre and a slight discrepancy on the area covered by the two parties' surveys.

''Over the last year, [the group]had two main concerns with the changes to our main street- this being reduced parking and traffic congestion," he said.

''We are pleased that all parties agree there are currently 21 fewer carparks in Jellicoe St and that council are reinstating them.

''The congestion problem remains but we are hopeful this can be revisited in the new year.''

Te Puke Community Board chairman Peter Miller said it was a positive thing that the cost of the work would not fall on ratepayers.

''My feeling is that it was an honest mistake and the council hadn't realised that [parking spaces] were marked out to a greater dimension.''

Miller said parking in the town centre was still an issue.