Plans to remove five carparks from Commerce Street in Whakatāne to improve safety at the Shapley Place intersection has hit a roadblock.

Deputy mayor Lesley Immink expressed disbelief that nearby businesses had not been contacted about the possibility of losing the carparks to create space for a right-turn lane at the centre median strip.

“We’ve got no recorded accidents, just near misses, and we’re going to take out five car parks with no open consultation?” Mrs Immink said at a Whakatāne District Council meeting last week.

“Should we not do that first?”

The infrastructure and planning committee was being asked to approve changes to the intersection beside the council building.

It followed some reported near misses due to poor visibility and no right-turn stacking lane for traffic turning into Shapley Place.

Transportation manager Ann-Elise Reynolds said the lack of space forced right-turning vehicles to sit on the narrow centre median strip, risking crashes with oncoming traffic and causing following vehicles to veer into the cycle lane to pass.

As the road reserve width was fixed, removing car parks from Commerce Street on either side of Shapley Place was the only way to create space for a stacker lane.

When asked by Local Democracy Reporting, most businesses said they were against losing any carparks.

Charity store Embrace co-founder Teresa Orchard said there was already a shortage of parking.

“We can’t lose any more carparks,” she said.

However, Heart to Heart owner Jade Adams said the intersection was problematic.

“I see a lot of near misses outside my store. There’s a lot of beeping horns. I guess the council staff probably see it all as well. We would lose a lot of customers but they’ve got to learn to walk from The Strand.”

Dianne Stevens, from On All Floors, said the biggest complaint she had from customers was they struggled to get a park near her store.

She said cars stayed too long in the two-hour parking area and parking meters might solve the issue.

“Some cars stay there over four hours.”

She wasn’t aware of a problem with the intersection.

“I don’t see any near misses, I haven’t had any near misses and none of my customers have reported any.”

She felt council staff should consult with businesses before asking councillors to make a decision.

“I would want to be at that meeting to have my say.”

Council staff first sought approval for the plan at a meeting in November but were asked by the committee to investigate other options to make the intersection safer, including councillor John Pullar suggesting that Shapley Place become a one-way street.

Ms Reynolds said this would cause more traffic on Boon Street and be more expensive to implement.

While nearby businesses had not yet been asked about the decision, Ms Reynolds said they would be if the council approved the plan.

“Before we went to roll it out we would have those conversations ... most businesses are always going to want more carparks. It’s about talking to them about how we can manage those concerns.”

Mr Pullar proposed monitoring of the intersection and consulting with nearby business owners, rather than making any changes. He felt losing the car parks was an overreaction to the issue.

“I understand there’s a risk there, and we’ve got to be conscious of that, but (taking away five carparks) is like using an elephant to crack a nut.”

All councillors voted for this option, with the exception of Mayor Victor Luca, who questioned how staff would go about monitoring the intersection.

“All you have at the moment is some anecdotal evidence. How do you monitor a near miss. What is your definition of a near miss?”

Councillor Gavin Dennis suggested blocking off the right turn into Shapley Place as a solution to the issue.

Councillor Nandor Tanczos congratulated staff on identifying a problem and coming up with a low-cost pre-emptive solution.

“Safety’s more important than parking,” he said. “But I think it’s important that we talk to businesses before we make any decision.”

LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.