A Tauranga resident has called into question council’s carpark fining methods after council’s roving vehicle failed to pick up on her mobility card and issued an infringement.

Morgan Byrt has several disabilities which causes her difficulty walking and requires fast access to her vehicle due to fainting.

She has a mobility permit issued by CCS Disability action – a disability support and advocacy organisation – to enhance her accessibility to spaces in the community.

In May, Morgan was parked in a standard parking space outside Repco Tauranga when she was issued a parking infringement. “We’re forced out of the actual mobility spaces because of the roadworks and everything…and then because the [council] roving vehicle doesn’t check our windscreen, we’re then given a $40 fine.”

Mobility permit parking

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

Morgan says she was parked in the space for 15 minutes when she was issued the fine. Council waived the fine with a warning, but Morgan says the fine is not the issue.

“I don’t give a crap about the ticket. Its $40. It’s the fact that the council knows they’re making a mistake…the practice is discriminatory. They don’t intend for it to be discriminatory – it just is, so they need to stop it.”

She adds: “It’s the council’s responsibility to maintain and ticket mobility spaces according to their own laws and bylaws. They should be doing their due diligence when they’re ticketing to ensure they’re not ticketing illegally.”

LPR technology

Tauranga City Council has two 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.

“Council use LPR technology to enforce paid parking offences in the CBD as it is the most effective method currently used in the parking industry,” says TCC regulation monitoring team leader Stuart Goodman. “This technology also drives compliance levels due to the increased chance of receiving an infringement for parking illegally.

“The LPR is not used to enforce mobility carparks – this is still done by officers on foot – only paid parking offences.”

However, in Morgan’s situation she was using her mobility card in a standard carpark, meaning the roving vehicle would not identify her permit.  “On this occasion, the driver was parked in a standard parking space and did not pay for parking. Council were not aware of the driver’s mobility card but has since added their registration to our system,” says Stuart. “So in future, if she does pay, we will double the time she can park for. Council have the ability to add registrations to our system, which will then inform officers to allow for double the time if the vehicle is linked to a mobility card.”

Registering issues

“I don’t want to be on a register,” says Morgan. “It doesn’t even make any sense because I take that mobility placard with me. It literally makes no sense because people with mobility issues have carers and families that often take them out and around [in different vehicles]. They clearly have not done enough research or asked how people get around.”

CSS Disability Action’s national manager access and infrastructure, BJ Clark says their organisation doesn’t issue mobility cards to registration plates.

“We stopped it a long time ago because people change their car and so therefore, they may have got their permit on one registration plate, change their car and then all of a sudden it doesn’t comply,” says Morgan. “My concern is things like an elderly person coming back to their vehicle having legitimately parked and finding that they have a ticket and so they’re going to get upset about that.

“I understand where the council is coming from with the abuse their enforcement officers have received and I’ve been assured that those using mobility parking spaces are not scanned by the council’s vehicle. It is just those vehicles that are parked on either timed or metred parks where the issue will happen…It does just create a bit of a speed bump for people using mobility parking permits.

“If they [council] have any issues like this in the future they might want to contact me as the manager of mobility parking in New Zealand and we could try find something that might work a little bit better.”