27,000 parking tickets issued after dark

Aucklanders used to fear burglars, rapists and home invaders in the dead of the night. Now the "villains" creeping about when all are asleep are Auckland city parking wardens - issuing more than 27,000 tickets a year between 11pm and 7am.

That's around 75 tickets every night - and not just in city streets. Suburban residences are also being targeted. But don't bother complaining to Chris Geerlings, parking services manager for Auckland City Council, who said parking wardens worked "24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year".

He had no sympathy for aggrieved car-parkers who complained when issued a ticket at three in the morning.

"People seem to think there's this mythical time of day when they are allowed to break the law."

Mr Geerlings often received calls from vitriolic citizens complaining about the time of their tickets.

Carol Curtis was recently one of those complainants. She was one of four people ticketed on Freyberg Ave in Sandringham for angle parking in a cul-de-sac at 11.45pm.

"I think it's rude to target people at that sort of time. I guess they target people who are asleep," said Mrs Curtis. "I've lived here seven years and we've always parked like this. It's bloody silly."

Mrs Curtis complained to the council and was told she had to "keep an eye out for the parking wardens".

"I was like 'at midnight? We're all asleep at midnight'."

In Auckland City, there are eight parking wardens working from 11pm to 3am. From 3am to 7am, four are on duty. But that can change if there is a 'special event'.

Auckland is the region's only council to have nocturnal parking wardens. Waitakere City Council parking manager Colin Waite said his staffworked "gentlemen's hours" - no later than 7pm.

Mr Geerlings said many residential areas were not patrolled very often so residents were lulled into a belief they could park how they wanted. They didn't realise car wardens worked at night.

Tickets issued ranged from parking a car within 6m of an intersection overnight to the most common - parking on yellow lines (4254 people ticketed between 11pm and 7am).

The wardens have 46 parking offences from which to choose. Fourteen people were ticketed for 'failing to park as close as practicable to the left', yet only three were caught out 'failing to park as close as practicable to the right'.

Other obscure offences are 'parked without reasonable consideration for other road users' and parking in areas reserved for street stalls.

-HERALD ON SUNDAY