Submission to Wellington City Council on footpath parking 2005

Ralph Chapman's submission to Wellington City Council - he had two minutes to present it.

• Living Streets Wellington has a strong interest in footpath parking
• Left largely unchecked, footpath parking is increasing in Wellington.
• Walking is vital to Wellington being a liveable city.  The message that Wellington is a great for walking needs to be proactively sold and supported. 
• We need to nip in the bud the growing perception that footpath parking is generally OK.
• We need to avoid it becoming a serious loss of amenity for those who walk in Wellington -- especially those, such as children, older people and the disabled, who need access to an uncluttered and safe footpath.

• We generally support the report to the Council, although in places we consider action should be stronger.
• The guidelines for targeting enforcement make sense, and are balanced.
• Lifting the level of education and publicity work in 06-07 is vital and should be better funded.
• An additional single enforcement officer is, we believer, inadequate, not commensurate with the cost of footpath damage being caused by such parking, and will not send the right signal of a more proactive council enforcement policy.
• We understand that using penalty revenue to fund enforcement is now being worked into Recommendation 5.
• We strongly recommend using increased penalty revenue to finance a greater resource commitment ? at least 2 additional officers.