AT removes parking from Matiatia

Auckland Transport has removed 10 parking spaces from the Matiatia car park with the blessing of the Waiheke Local Board. The move has incensed the Ferry Users Group (FUG) and will infuriate the Waiheke community who are having their daily lives disrupted by the parking crisis at Matiatia.
 
The move breaks a long standing commitment of Auckland Transport that they would not remove any car parking without making alternative parking provision.
 
I hadn’t intended to write another blog before Christmas but this high-handed disregard for the Waiheke community by Auckland Transport and the Waiheke Local Board cannot go without comment
 
FUG has issued the following media release

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Parking Spaces in Matiatia to be Reduced
 
Auckland Council, through its subsidiary AT, decided to remove ten parking spaces in the premium area of the Matiatia car park between 20 December and February 8. These are to be given to shuttle operators to, in AT’s words, "avoid [shuttle] drivers having to risk receiving parking infringement notices by leaving their vehicles unattended whilst they meet their passengers coming off the ferry".
This decision was made with the support of Waiheke’s Local Board, according to AT.

AT had failed to provide eleven new car parking spaces in Matiatia, through marginal improvements to the design of the car park. This was promised months ago, around the same time that we were told in no uncertain terms "AT has no plans to significantly increase parking supply at Matiatia".

FUG was not consulted until after the decision had been publicly announced. We suggested that a more suitable area would be a strip behind the bushes separating the lower car park from the grassy area beside it. AT responded by saying that was not possible, because that area “is owned by Auckland Council, not AT”. We also pointed out that the area was used not long ago to park a restaurant and bar tent, but AT told us that requests for parking "will not be considered due to the cultural significance of the area".

We believe that it is absurd that a site suitable to host a restaurant and bar is somehow too 'sacred' to revert to its former use as a car park, given the parking crisis situation in Matiatia created by AT's ongoing failure to provide adequate infrastructure.

AT has spent millions of our dollars building pink suspended highways in the city, for the recreational use of a few lycra-clad middle-aged planet savers.
It spends millions more lavishly paying its ballooning management and providing staff with a large fleet of expensive company SUVs, along with free  parking permits (just check out  level 8 of the Downtown Car Park).

Except when it comes to themselves, AT has declared war on motorists, it seems. It is clear that we will need to elect new representatives capable of controlling this out-of-control outfit.

Yet again it is a clear case of Auckland Transport and the Waiheke Local Board, whose members receive AT parking permits for Matiatia, ordering ratepayers to 'do as I say not as I do'. 

Instead of making the parking crisis at Matiatia worse Auckland Transport and the Waiheke Local Board should be listening to the people. The community is demanding more parking be created to meet the growing demand of islanders and visitors alike.

Associated blogs
FUG accuses Auckland Council of corruption over Matiatia parking
​The party goes on at Auckland Transport