Council parking spots plague life for Kamal and Dimple
By Alan Tristram; Photos by Ian Linnng (PrimoFoto)
Life’s pretty tough for Kamal and Deempalben (‘Dimple’) Patel at the moment because their loyal customers can’t park cars anywhere near the shop at Raumati Beach.
Kapiti Coast District Council (KCDC) parking laws have wiped out all parking for nearly 20 metres along the Margaret Road shop frontage in favour of two large disabled-only parks – the only one’s of their kind in the village.
Customers can’t park outside, nor can the many distribution vans and trucks delivering goods.
To make matters worse, the rest of the road has 60-minute parking, and a new cafe, which means longer-term parkers are blocking off the rest of the near-by car parks.
Kamal and Dimple feel they’ve reached the end of the road in frustration with a Council which is allegedly pro-small business.
While the attractive couple from Gujarat work seven days a week, 13 hours a day, they see Council bureaucrats (five days a week, eight hours a day, less coffee breaks) dawdling on their case.
Kamal says: “They put these two big disabled parks right outside, but hardly anyone uses them. A council guy visited us and agreed things weren’t good. But we’re still waiting for something to happen!
“Meanwhile some of my customers are going away. Why are they picking on us?”
(Of course, it’s not discrimination on the part of the KCDC, but it must feel like it to the Patels at times).
The Kapiti Independent is taking up the Patels’ case because we feel it is hypercritical of the Kapiti Coast Council to set up a new body to supposedly encourage small businesses – yet hamstring them with regulation.
Councillor K Gurunathan (Guru) has made flying visits to the Patels, but so far nothing has happened beyond a visit from the council officer.
The Councillor promised KIN a statement explaining what he has done on behalf of his constituents, but this hasn’t eventuated. Meanwhile, the Patels continue to lose business.
You have to wonder what planet the Town Planners are on! It’s obvious one disability park outside the 4 Square would have been fine–and another, if thought necessary somewhere elso on Margaret Road. Secondly, people pop in and pop out of dairys, and you would have thought KCDC would follow best practise used by other Councils and have a couple of short-term parking–say 10 mins–outside the shop. As it is the 2 disability parks are using up all the parking space–I would say 4 spaces–outside of the 4 Square and it is now almost impossible to easily use this shop using car. KCDC–move quickly and sort this bureaucratically constructed mess out!
IMO the parking that is made available to those with disabilities should be as close as possible to the most important, available public type facility, perhaps a post shop ?, ATM machine ?, Pharmacy ? etc.
Personally if I was the owner of a retail facility like the Patels I would welcome the high propensity for custom afforded by the positioning of the disabled parking.
Situations of this nature should also remind us of the impending growth burst Kapiti is to experience and the need for proactive sustainability planning now !
Thanks to Kapiti Independent News for putting me on the spot. I would have expected nothing less. Firstly, welcome to an insight into the wheels of bureaucracy. They work very slowly through a process. It’s worse when action is expected during the Christmas and holiday break. It’s the nature of the beast. This was explained to the Patels.
Secondly, in your tex inviting me to respond you stated why should the Patel’s “be burdened” by having two parking lots reserved for the disabled outside his business. Wrong choice of words on your part. Serving members of the disabled community is a privilege never a burden. That is a mark of civilised communities. I agree however that this privilege should be shared amongst the other businesses.
Despite being the holiday season, staff had responded to my alert and had visited the site and measured the size of the lots and agreed that it was over sized. The process problem is not as simple as a paint job. This is especially so in cases which involve the rights of our community with disabilities. People who are already facing a range of everyday discrimination. While the Patels have a point, the matter has to go before the Paraparaumu Raumati Community Board via a staff report. I expect staff to have consulted with the advisory group representing our community with disabilities.
It’s worth mentioning that what the Patel’s are facing is not unique. A competing corner dairy on nearby Matatua Rd has complained about excessive use of the parking space fronting his retail outlet by nearby cafe patrons. I have also alerted staff about a problem faced by an electronic repair shop on Milne Drive. Staff from other businesses permanently park outside their shop. Their clients include many elderly who are forced to carry their heavy electronic goods. Then along Kapiti Rd by Arko Place, fronting the Pacific Radiology, local businesses are cursing council for a narrow road design and parking congestion. Yet another sore point is around the Aotea laboratory along Rimu Rd. People already stressed with health concerns, especially elderly citizens, face a chronic lack of parking. During week days the kerb and even the berm between the pohutukawa trees are taken up by cars belonging to rail commuters.
I don’t mean to make the Patel’s molehill problem into a mountain but it’s the tip of an iceberg. Paraparaumu is growing and the growth, from a transport perspective, continues to be a car-dominated one. We are beginning to see an increasing parking problem and council has yet to fund a comprehensive study to understand this problem. I suspect any study could throw up a solution that no politician would champion – parking meters.