Parking officers need new image, says councillor

Press, 4 July 1985, Page 9

Parking officers need new image, says councillor

Christchurch City Council parking officers look too authoritative for one city councillor. Cr Alister James wants new uniforms for the officers who check parking offences in the city. He believes the present ones make them look too authoritative.

He told the council’s works and traffic committee yesterday that he would like to see the officers in a uniform similar to the Garden City Guides. That was a sensible and attractive uniform, he said.

The council’s parking superintendent, Mr Geoff Stephenson, assured him that the officers liked their uniform. The uniform did

not stop people asking them for help. “Let’s face it. It is not a picnic out on the streets. They are enforcing 34 offences. We may have to send them out with batons soon,” Mr Stephenson said. He said he would check again with the officers to confirm they liked their uniform. The offficers will take over the duties of the City Guides when the guides cease to exist in September when the P.E.P. scheme under which they work is finished.

They would patrol the City Mall and the central city. While the guides had been in the area, the enforcement of regulations

had been by persuasion rather than prosecution, Mr Stephenson said. The return of those duties to the traffic officers would increase their workload, he said. Mr Stephenson said he would report fully on the guides to the committee next month. Parking Two hundred parking meter mechanisms able to take 20c and 50c coins will be bought by the council. Most of the meters take only 5c and 10c coins. Of 2287 meters, only 463 take 20c coins. The council has sought quotations for 200 new meter mechanisms to replace existing mechanisms.

They are expected to cost $3lO each, a total of $62,000. The traffic engineer, Mr Mike Gadd, reported to the council’s works and traffic committee yesterday that the mechanisms would be able to accept 20c and (later) 50c coins. The committee approved the quotation of $62,000 from an American firm, Harding Signals, Ltd. Victoria Square The area left vacant by the demolition of buildings for the new Parkroyal Hotel in Victoria Square may be used for public parking. A recommendation by the committee suggests 120 minute parking spaces until work on the new hotel begins.