Stadium's carpark chaos

Trying to manoeuvre his twins' double pram around parkers like these has been a source of annoyance for Brad Flower.

Winter sport is seeing carpark chaos at Whangarei's Kensington Stadium, with some drivers paying no heed to garden beds and footpaths in their quest to make the game on time.

Whangarei's Brad Flower said the disorder had been a "bugbear" of his for nearly three years.

Mr Flower told of difficulty negotiating the carpark to get his 11-year-old daughter and three-year-old twins to junior hockey matches.

His frustration led him to photograph the offending vehicles and submit them to a Facebook wall of shame "Naughty Northland Parking Offenders".

"People park half on and half off the pavements. It means you have to push the pram off the footpath with cars going past," he said.

Mr Flower had written to council and said he would like to see bollards installed or more enforcement action.

Kim Robinson, an administrator for Naughty Northland Parking Offenders, said the Kensington carpark was an ongoing issue.

"It can have an impact on parents with disabilities who take their children to sporting events," he said.

Northland Hockey Association chief executive Grant McLeod said he often had members make complaints about conduct in carparks.

"We have tried to schedule our games in such a way that not everyone is playing at the same time. I think we've done it reasonably well but mid-week we do get some issues around all the kids playing at 4pm and 5pm, then the adults turn up at 6pm."

Environmental Northland Limited manager Keith Thompson said parking inspectors were at Kensington Stadium every Saturday, though he said they gave out "bugger all" infringement notices - about six on an average Saturday. They preferred to take a preventative approach, he said.

"What we tend to do is try and catch people as they are parking on the verges. Say 'hey listen you're damaging the verge'. It seems to work. People can get a bit antsy because they're running late and then a warden gives them a ticket."

He said one of the main issues was cars blocking each other in.