A near miss has prompted the Tāhunanui Community Hub to encourage parents to park elsewhere when picking up or dropping their kids off for school.
Murray Leaning, the hub’s general manager, thinks the carpark outside the Muritai St hub is too busy.
With just 17 parks, including two mobility parks, he says the carpark was intended for use solely by people who were visiting either the hub, Tāhunanui Kindergarten, or the hall used by the Taoist Tai Chi Society.
But caregivers of children who attend Tāhunanui School use the carpark for pick-up and drop-off, creating safety risks.
“There’s only a limited number of parks; it’s quite narrow. So, it was getting quite stressful there at one stage, because people’s driving behaviour sometimes leaves a little bit to be desired,” Murray says.
“We had a guy roaring out of the car park at about 30[kmh] and he missed this kid, who was about to run out from between two cars, by millimetres.”
Murray adds that there are “plenty of options” for parents to park on nearby streets, especially Rawhiti St which had several carparks and was next to a school gate.
Kirsty Parker, head teacher at Tāhunanui Kindergarten, says that “nightmare” parking is a constant for education facilities, and it was no different at the kindergarten.
Caregivers often remark on how difficult it was to find a park when they drop their children off.
“There’s just not enough parking around for families, but then it would be great to see more families not relying on their cars, and walking when they live locally.”
She says that the Nelson City Council, which owns the carpark, was doing an initiative with the kindergarten and Tāhunanui School for their students to be ‘Travel Champions’.
For every trip a child makes to or from their school or kindergarten without a car, they receive a clip on their “travel passport”. Completed passports go into the draw to win coffee vouchers.
In August, safety concerns prompted Tāhunanui School to lock down its Muritai St carpark between 2:45 and 3:15, with vehicles not being allowed to enter or exit during that time.
“A number of cars have been damaged, a number of arguments have occurred, and a terrifying amount of near misses have been observed,” a school notice from that month reads.
Deputy principal Ian Lambie says the school was working with the hub on the “longstanding” parking problems.
“We have 280 students at our school, many of whom bike, walk, or scooter to school, but not all families can do so,” he says.
“We are encouraging our staff, whanau and students to actively travel to school and, if they can’t, to consider parking 150 metres or more away.”
Alongside Rawhiti St Centennial Rd, and Green and Roto Streets have also been proposed as parking locations for caregivers.
The council’s group manager infrastructure, Alec Louverdis, said the council was aware of the “ongoing parking challenges”.
“Council has engaged with the Tāhunanui Community Hub as part of supporting parents dropping kids off at Tāhunanui School and Kindergarten to either walk or cycle where possible.
“We support the hub’s efforts to educate users about safe carpark use and have suggested alternative parking options located less than 100 metres away.”
Given the carpark’s small size, users were expected to travel at “very low speeds”, and right turning from the carpark onto Muritai Street was prohibited.
“Driver behaviour and education are key to keeping the community safe. If required, council will reinforce existing signage.”
