Queenstown’s desperate carparking situation has left one resident fed up with people resorting to parking their cars across her driveway.
Sue Ross says in the past month alone, there have been three separate incidences where she’s been blocked from her Brisbane St driveway, for hours on end, by illegally parked cars.
‘‘One woman’s car was there for more than eight hours.
‘‘When she came back she was really annoyed that I asked her what she thought she was doing,’’ Ross says.
‘‘She claimed she’d never park over anybody’s driveway. I said ‘well you just did, for eight hours’.’’
It’s free to park on Brisbane St, a cul-de-sac near the Queenstown Gardens, but in recent weeks paid parking was introduced to nearby Park St.
It was introduced to Coronation Dr around 2017.
Ross says the extra ticketed parking, along with arterial bypass roadworks knocking out a lot of street parking near the CBD, is causing workers and tourists to resort to desperate measures to get a free park.
Parked cars clog up her street from 6am every day, she says.
While she has sympathy for people working in town who need all-day parking, it doesn’t give them the right to park over driveways.
If would help if they were prepared to walk a bit further to find legal parking alternatives.
It’s a particular issue for Ross because her property is undergoing major building works, and a blocked driveway means tradespeople and deliveries cannot gain access.
‘‘If my builders can’t get into work, then I’m just losing money.’’
Council’s enforcement strategy and prosecution policy stipulates a vehicle may be towed if it’s considered ‘inconsiderate’ to other road users, for example if it’s blocking access.
Ross says it took from 8am to 3pm for council to get a tow truck to her house to remove the car.
The situation reached a new low last month when she had two cars blocking her driveway in one day.
Council stats back up Ross’s claims, with the number of requests for tows to remove illegally or inconsiderately parked cars ballooning to 168 in the past 12 months, exactly twice the number of the previous 12 months.
Council media man Sam White says the town centre upgrades are aimed at making the resort less vehicle and more active transport focused.
Much of the work has removed only short-term parking, so hasn’t affected those working in town or visiting for longer, and council has recently installed parking in the town centre for 150 cars, White says.
