This summer certainly has seen a surge in visitors to Raglan. Parking has been short at many places around town. As we have reported previously, some motorbike, car and ute owners have taken to parking on the grass central median strip in Bow St. Raglan Ward Councillor, Clint Baddeley, said on a recent Raglan Community Radio interview that he didn’t like this happening. He mentioned that more parking is needed around town.
Enquiries to Waikato District Council have revealed that a parking warden did not visit Raglan on any of the December/January statutory holidays. A parking warden did make weekly patrols during December and twice weekly in January. A spokesperson for the Ngaruawahia based Council said, “It had issued 10 infringements (six on 6 January, three on 11 January and one on 16 January) for parking on the median in Raglan. Our parking warden also exercised a pre-emptive approach while patrolling in Raglan and directed people away from parking in this area. We understand that parking does get congested during this time and Council is considering its options in terms of undertaking additional parking enforcement during the busy holiday period. “
Seems strange that there is no enforcement on the days when parking problems are at their worst. So it seems you will get a ticket if you park on the median strip if the parking warden is visiting, but you won’t get one on a Public Holiday. Come on Raglanders and visitors, it’s a bad look, please don’t park on the median strip, even if the warden isn’t in town.
Council watchdog John Lawson says, “Even parking for bikes has been short. It’s much cheaper to provide for bikes. Before wasting more money on car parking they should be looking at how they can cut the number of cars. Options would include painting bike lanes, opening off-road routes, such as Primrose St paper road, and looking again at the Raglan Naturally proposal for a local bus service, probably with a park and ride shuttle.”
But the good folk in Ngaruawhia don’t seem to know that Raglan bike stands are also fully used as a spokesperson said, ” Council currently provides a number of bicycle parks around Raglan which we understand aren’t utilised that frequently so that’s one asset we would encourage locals to take advantage of more often.”
Other questions we put to WDC were on whether the Council has any plans for:
- More vehicle parking around Raglan?
- For next summer a shuttle bus from remote parking areas to Bow St?
A spokesperson for WDC said, “We are currently in the design phase of a pavement rehabilitation project along James Street which will also allow for additional off-street car parking.
“The provision of shuttle services around town would require additional funding from ratepayers and is probably a project more suited to a business association initiative or local tourism operators.”
Seems strange that WDC doesn’t think that a Park n Ride shuttle is their responsibility, when public transport is a core local government activity. In another surf town, not too far away at Byron Bay, the Byron Bay Shire Council has organised a park ‘n ride magic shuttle bus.
As the parking area for the new Four Square supermarket doesn’t look very big we also asked, “Does the new supermarket being built in Bankart St have the number of parking spaces required by the District Plan or have they made a development contribution?”
A spokesperson for WDC said, “The proposed supermarket includes the necessary number of car parking spaces as required by the District Plan.”
Good to hear. This will be a small increase in the parking available in the Raglan CBD. Thanks Four Square. Let’s hope you can give us a bike rack!