The Christchurch City Council seems to have a streets department with a death wish. When not actually closing the streets they are supposed to manage, they spend lots of their time and our money narrowing them. Having managed to move the two kerbs on either side as close as possible to union, they then move on to reducing or banning parking, adding humps, and creating large areas of 'native planting' anywhere that they find a puddle.
It is a crime that I have not highlighted this more on my blog. I promise to focus on it more, and be flogged if I don't.
One thing that is annoying the lunatics at the council at the moment is people driving to work. In Merivale, a central suburb built around a small shopping mall, they find streets full of parked cars - the cars of those who work in the mall and surrounding shops and hospitals. The problem is made worse by narrow streets (many of which were 14m wide only 10 years ago and are now 5m narrower) which makes it more difficult to get out of driveways without hitting a passing car.
Now, there is a plan to try to ban people from parking all day in Merivale Streets. The theory is that this will force them to take the bus. I have my doubts. There are plenty of jobs elsewhere in the city which don't require a long walk back to the car. There are plenty of outlying streets which will fill up instead. The council plans to continuously expand the parking ban, presumably until no one can park anywhere without a parking ticket.
Anyway, who said we should force people to take the bus? It's those silly environmentalists again, isn't it? Leave us alone!
Some residents have got together to stop this madness. By the council's own figures most residents oppose it.
If the plan goes ahead Merivale residents in the streets will be the losers. We pay huge rates but the Council will be taking away our rights to park outside our own properties and in our own street.
And for what?
Comments