Another Tauranga mobility card-holder has come forward after being fed up and frustrated from receiving more than 10 parking infringements issued by Tauranga City Council’s roving vehicle.

Reading an article in The Sun last week about a woman being ticketed by council’s roving vehicle, after it failed to pick up on her mobility permit, Carol Flynn reached out to share her own story.

“I park in a mobility parking spot in Elizabeth St every work day from 6am until about 3pm in the afternoon, so I’m constantly getting tickets for infringements saying that I’m parking for over and above what I’m paying for, when the facts are that I’m not,” says Carol, who has her mobility permit is displayed in her car.

Tauranga City Council’s rules for vehicles displaying a valid mobility card allow for double the parking time restriction (maximum two hours), and they’re permitted to pay half of their parking time needed.

Following these rules, Carol says she pays $6.50 a day for parking via the Paymypark App. Enforcing paid parking offences, TCC uses parking officers and roving vehicles that use Licence Plate Recognition technology to capture a vehicle’s location and check for valid parking payments against the vehicle’s registration.

Enforcing mobility carparks

Last week, TCC’s regulation monitoring team leader Stuart Goodman commented.

“The LPR is not used to enforce mobility carparks (this is still done by officers on foot), only paid parking offences.” From her experience, Carol says this comment is incorrect.

“The fact that [council] said they do not use the scanners, that a warden comes around to specifically check the mobility parks…is not true at all. I’ve received one ticket outside work from the warden and that was when my Warrant of Fitness was out inadvertently – that was the one and only time I’ve received a ticket by the warden.”

However, Carol says she’s received about 20 parking infringement notices since April. “Every single infringement notice I’ve received has been via the scanner on the [roving] car.”

Attempting to clear up these contradictions, The Sun followed up with TCC again.

“An officer on foot will identify if vehicles parked in a mobility space have a valid mobility card displayed. If not, a $150 infringement can be issued. The LPR is used to monitor paid parking offences in all paid carparks, which include mobility parks,” says Stuart.

Infringements and errors

“This vehicle received six parking infringements before contacting us in April to advise they had a mobility card. This registration was entered into our system.” 

These infringements were waived after Carol disputed them on the basis of council’s parking rules for mobility card-holders.

Yet after her mobility card was registered to her registration plate, Carol has continued receiving infringements. In email communication between Carol and council’s Regulation Monitoring Team in May, council stated: “We have checked our records and firstly can confirm that your Mobility Permit was in our system to ensure correct parking restrictions are adhered to. We apologise as the ticket was issued in error and can confirm that the ticket has today been cancelled and no further action is required”.

Carol says: “Why is the onus up to me to prove that I’ve paid my parking legally when their system should be able to do that because I pay through their app? So their receipting system should be able to see it, match it and marry it up.”

Few options available

“This situation involves a CBD worker using a public mobility park for all-day parking outside their workplace,” says Stuart.

“While this is not illegal, council prefers that these parks are kept available for visitors to the CBD and that employers look at other options to cater for staff with mobility/access issues.”

“We don’t use these mobility carpark spaces because we think we’re special, it’s because we don’t have an option,” says Carol. “I think that’s the annoying thing and then for them to keep sending infringements, it’s almost like it points the finger at you to prove time and time again, that you’ve actually got something wrong with you.”

“It’s not a designated car space to me, but it’s just their attitude. If I could walk 10 miles, I would walk 10 miles. The thing is I can’t walk 10 miles. I can’t walk 2km.”

Carol has a breathing disability which affects her the most this time of year.

“This weather is just shocking for me to have to be out in it and try walk in it, and it just hits home even more how fragile I am and I don’t want to feel that. I don’t want to be feeling sorry for myself.”

More fines

Further infringements have been issued to Carol as Stuart says she’s been “selecting the incorrect zone on the Paymypark App”.

“Initially, it was not identified that Carol had been purposely selecting the incorrect payment zone. We will advise Carol that she needs to select the correct zone going forward to avoid further fines.”

Carol says she has ultimately been “punished” as the mobility carpark she uses is now out of action.

“The consequences are I’ve lost that carpark now because they’ve fenced off the road to do yet more roadworks. I will basically try work from home until Christmas until all those roadworks are finished.

“I’m really, really angry. There’s a lot of things I don’t do because of the parking situation in Tauranga – so it makes me feel like a prisoner in my own town really and yeah it does push me out.”