Parkhurst Parking Issues to be Resolved Soon?

Note to editors: The following is an extract from a speech made by Tim Truluck during a recent Johannesburg Council meeting.

The City of Johannesburg has requested the MMC for Public Safety, Cllr Selly Lemao, to take the necessary steps to resolve the challenges on paid parking meter system in Parkhurst by 9 May.

This was the recommendation voted on in a full Council Meeting on Thursday 25 April 2013 when a Public Safety Section 79 oversight committee report on the "Public Hearings Conducted on the Rollout of Paid Parking System in Parkhurst" was presented.

This report on the public hearings on the paid parking scheme is just the latest indictment in the botched roll out and subsequent mismanagement that continues to embarrass this City while punishing the tiny and vibrant northern suburb of Parkhurst.

The scheme was conceived to solve the street parking problems experienced in the Central Business Districts of Johannesburg and Braamfontein. And, it has by and large worked in those areas.

But when the scheme moved into the suburbs, its deficiencies became apparent.

If the scheme was adaptable and if the City had been responsive to submissions from the Parkhurst Community it may have worked. All they needed to have done were the following three things:

1)  There needed to be a 15-30 minutes free parking period to enable residents to drop in and buy milk or a newspaper from local traders.

2)  Parkhurst does not have a parking problem during the day when this scheme operates. The problems start in early evening and weekends when patrons for the restaurants arrive and park all over the sidewalk and clog the side streets. Apart from Saturday mornings, this scheme does not address the parking problems in Parkhurst. Proper law enforcement is really all that is needed to solve any Parkhurst parking problems.

3)  There has been no other benefit to the suburb. The Service Level Agreement between Ace Parking and the JMPD clearly states that it is the City's responsibility to maintain the roads and sidewalks where the scheme is implemented. Apart from JRA painting the street markings with paint bought and supplied by Ace, 4th Avenue in Parkhurst still has potholes, still has crumbling sidewalks and still has paid parking bays on pedestrian crossings.

If the City had addressed these issues, then the revolt by the Parkhurst community would probably have fizzled out.

What happened next has been summed up by the MD of Ace Parking in a December 2012 report: "In the beginning of January of 2012 Ace started to expand operations into the suburbs of Johannesburg with the first one being Parkhurst. The residents of Parkhurst rallied behind a campaign to resist the new parking management system and resulted in a lot of press. Unfortunately, as a result of this, the process of expanding operations into the Johannesburg suburbs has now been stalled for over 15 months."

This report before the full council contains the words, grievances and the general discontent of residents and councillors towards the paid parking scheme in the suburbs.

But it also contains evidence that JMPD led the City's residents and councillors down the garden path with respect to a study that was supposedly conducted to identify the suburbs for paid parking roll out.

At the June meeting with councillors, Chief of Police, Chris Ngcobo was quoted as saying: "A survey was done. JMPD had identified 38 areas that will be affected by the system."

Furthermore, at the 14 September meeting with Councillors and members of the public, he is quoted as responding to Cllr Amanda Forsythe with: "He will meet with the Cllr in Ward 87 and take her through the survey done."

But, at the Region B public meeting on 5 December, the Chief was not there and the Acting Chief of Police, Director Dlepu, finally came clean and advised that: "There was no study conducted." 

The Chief of Police misled me, my fellow councillors, the MMC, the Section 79 Committee, the public.

This scheme is now blighted in the suburbs. But it still remains in one tiny suburb where it is not addressing the needs of the community, it is not solving the parking problems, it is not improving the quality of life in our suburban high street environment, it is not even making money for the City.

In the words of a Parkhurst Resident who is one of 1398 petitions to remove the scheme from Parkhurst: "The Kerbside Paid Parking concept in Parkhurst was not properly planned, no consultation, poorly implemented and is generally unpopular."

MMC Lemao, MMC Walters, Executive Mayor; listen to what your residents want. What your traders want. What your visitors to the City want. Remove the paid parking scheme from Parkhurst.

Issued by the DA Joburg, May 6 2013

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