A parent of a child who engages in Saturday sport at Tauranga's Blake Park is expressing his frustration with the parking in the area on weekends.

'My son has been playing rugby this year, when we go down to Blake Park it is basically chaos,” says the parent, who requested to remain anonymous.

The parent says that there are 'tonnes” of families at the park during weekends, however the lack of parking options leads people to park illegally.

The parent adds he is 'disappointed” to see a parking warden there issuing parking tickets.

'There's not many options around, and for a Saturday morning sport, you'd think that would be ok for a few hours.

'Yes, people have parked illegally, but at the same time, Saturday sport is good for our community.

'The council needs to think a little deeper about why people are having to park illegally in the first place.”

He says that community sport has been shown to benefit young people in the community, and it is 'frustrating” to see that the council is issuing fines.

'When people feel like they're being punished for being part of that, it's quite disheartening. I'd hate to think that these fines could turn some families off of coming back.”

The parent says there are ‘about 50' cars that were able to be fined on the Saturday.

'It's only for those few hours, and it really shows there's parking issues there.

'Maybe they could put up signs and change the speed limit in that area during those areas when the cars are on the road during Saturday sport.

'It makes sense that it may not be worth building a car park for just those few hours on a Saturday morning. I am just suggesting there may be a better way of dealing with this issue.”

The Tauranga City Council says parking officers are monitoring the Blake Park area on Saturday mornings and issuing infringement notices to people parking illegally across the central median strip, footpaths, traffic islands and pedestrian crossings.

Parking officers have been patrolling the area using a Licence Plate Recognition car to take enforcement action. Infringement notices are subsequently posted to the vehicle owner.

Council regulation monitoring team leader Stuart Goodman says Council will be engaging with key stakeholders at Blake Park to educate park users on the safety issues and consequences of this behaviour, and is also looking at options such as additional signage and physical deterrents.

'Parking on the median strip and footpath is both illegal and dangerous. The Maunganui Road safety improvements project has made a number of changes to the road layout in order to make the road safer – particularly for kids – but we need the public to play its part to keep them safe too,” says Goodman.

'There is plenty of on-street parking in the streets between Maunganui Road and Totara Street, however you might need to allow an extra five to 10 minutes to find a park as the area is extremely busy on Saturday mornings.”