Car park compromise in Methven

Nicole Mathewson Reporter from The Press

From local democracy reporter Jonathan Leask:

A business owner is calling the introduction of parking restrictions in the Methven mall a compromise.

The Methven Community Board is passing a recommendation to the council to introduce five 30-minute time-restricted car parks in the town's retail centre.

The consultation had proposed introducing a one-hour parking restriction for 10 of the 15 parks, but as there was no clear consensus, the board was presented with the revised recommendation.

The Salt House owner Cherie Summers-Wight said "it’s a compromise”.

“It’s good that it’s only five and maybe 15 minutes would have been better."

Several businesses were unaware there was even a major problem until the consultation papers were delivered, Summers-Wight said.

Methven Supervalue requested the introduction of time-restricted parking as it felt that at times there was a shortage of parks available for customers, due to some vehicles parking for extended periods.

The supermarket had installed its own unapproved parking restriction signs but was asked to remove them, instigating conversations around restricted parking in the mall.

It declined to comment on the board’s recommendation.

The board approved a consultation process with affected businesses in the mall, which had 14 responses.

During the consultation, Summers-Wight helped organise a meeting between the business owners and attended by members of the board, to discuss the situation, hoping that would be enough to solve the issue.

There was no clear agreement in the consultation, with five respondents wanting the status quo, five wanting an alternative, and two supporting the 10 one-hour parks.

Several submissions pointed to the fact that most of the businesses in the mall offer services that require customer parking for longer than an hour.

There was also some conjecture over the reference to ‘angled parks’, which council’s environmental monitoring manager Rick Catchpowle said referred to the right-angled parks, to distinguish them from the parallel parks in the mall.

The result of the consultation was a revised configuration, which the board supported.

The recommendation will go before the council later this month and if adopted, signage will be installed.