The small holiday town at war with council over car parks

Pōhara Store owner Dave Hix has found the past eight weeks stressful.

Fed up with a “lack of consultation” from the installation of a shared cyclepath by the local council, Hix launched a petition to protest against the loss of car parks outside his store.

Speaking in the public forum of Thursday’s Tasman District Council meeting, Hix said the petition had 373 signatures, of which 250 were locals, in an area with a population of 520.

The store, he said, was set to lose “eight generous car parks”, which would be replaced by “four-and-a-half parallel spaces”.

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This was going to make it difficult for mothers with children, and the elderly who parked in the disabled spot directly in front of the shop. From 100 parks along the strip, there would be 40 left, he said.

A letter written by a “concerned” Amy Mangan, the owner of restaurant and bar Molly B’s, was also read by Dave Hix, and resident Helen Vesper spoke on behalf of those living on nearby streets such as Richmond Rd, Watino Place and Kohikiko Place, who Vesper said had not been consulted.

These streets, she said, were “not designed to be overflow parking for the motorcamp”.

Hix said the impact on his business from the reconfigured parking would be “huge”.

“People will go to a convenience store if it’s convenient, and if they can’t find a car park, they won’t stop there … I’m estimating a $200K loss turnover for our shop alone.”

There had been “no public consultation whatsoever”, and it had been “stressful”, “having the council officer involved in the cycleway telling me he doesn’t care about our business”.

“I’ve never had to fight like this for anything before in my life really.”

Council chief executive officer Janine Dowding​ said the shop owner had been “more involved” in the design of the shared path than any other store or business owner that she had seen.

Hix had made “many, many” suggestions which had been incorporated into the design, or council staff had tried to “meet him halfway” to address his concerns.

Dowling said the petition expressed Hix’s “very firm view” that the cycleway was going to affect his business, but that was “not council’s experience” of cycleways.

Golden Bay ward councillor Chris Hill said the road had been a “nightmare” for a long time, and she had been approached by a number of people concerned about the safety of children walking and biking.

When government funding became available, the Community Board in Golden Bay “just went ‘oh, thank goodness’” and jumped at the chance to get the pathway finished.

“Any changes in the bay here, there’s often quite a resistance to it, and I acknowledge there is a change to right outside the shop,” Hill said.

“But I’d say that, reading the petition … people are suggesting the shop will have to close down, there’ll be congestion in Tākaka from all those people driving into town, it’s gotten a bit out of hand, to be fair.

“I think overall, there’s actually a similar amount of parking, or it’s just the tradie will need to just stop on the other side of the road … and walk across the road for the pie.”

Gene Cooper, the owner and operator of the Pōhara Beach Top 10 Holiday Park along with his wife Jenny, also came to the council meeting to vent their concerns.

Carparks along Abel Tasman Drive were “absolutely chocka” from Christmas Eve onwards, he said, and a reduction in car parks would mean either people weren’t going to come to Pōhara, or they would come, and would cause a “massive disruption” to locals.

“I don’t want to be the bugger that gets the phone calls that says ‘your campers have parked over my driveway’.”