Kensington Park users frustrated by parking shortage on Saturday mornings

Adelaide Henderson wants more parking at Kensington Park on a Saturday morning. Photo/John Stone

A fed-up user of Kensington Park is calling for more car parking and a repainting of existing spaces to allow more room on Saturdays.

Adelaide Henderson has been heading to Kensington Park for her sons' sport every Saturday morning during winter for 10 years.

She said after filling up the carpark, people add their cars on to the end of the row in the carpark, they park on the grass verge and fill up surrounding streets.

The Whangarei District Council has issued a reminder that tickets will be issued for drivers who park across driveways, on grass verges and paths.

"The council should be putting more car parking into that area so that ticketing isn't an issue," Mrs Henderson said.

She wants to see the carpark repainted as she believes the driving area is too generous and could be made smaller to fit more parks. She also wants extra parks squeezed in on surrounding streets.

She doesn't see them being empty the rest of the time as a problem.

"If they're only on the side of the road that's not an issue."

She accepts when people park on the grass it can make a horrible mess.

"I just don't know where else we can park."

Mrs Henderson said out of frustration she has parked illegally and been ticketed.

However, she said her gripe with the parking started years before the ticket.

She is also concerned some grandparents are unable watch the children play because they cannot walk great distances from their car to the field.

Council spokesperson Ann Midson said it was a tricky problem as the number and location of free parking spaces varies wildly depending on the time of year and the time of day.

"The most congested times are Saturday mornings, in winter, between games, when some are arriving for a game before others have left.

"If there was enough parking for everyone at those moments, a large proportion of carparks would be sitting vacant a few minutes later and remain that way until the next changeover, then all afternoon, and all day Sunday, every day for the rest of the week, and every week for the rest of the year.

"That is a large resource to have available but unused, and isn't the best use of ratepayer funds. We aim to find the balance."

Every winter the council put warning flyers under the windscreen wipers of people who are infringing the rules. After a few weeks the education switches to tickets.

They suggest planning ahead, considering car pooling, leaving home earlier, dropping players at the ground finding a park and walking back as options to ease congestion.

While there are no current plans to increase parking in the area, the council are encouraging people to tell them, via the heretowhere.co.nz website, what they should be considering when they put together their 10-year plan next year.

Chief executive Rob Forlong said now was the perfect time for people to be very clear about what they wanted to see in the district.