The corner of Hagley Avenue and Riccarton Avenue, outside Christchurch Hospital, where a traffic lane could be closed to allow more on-street parking. Photo: Google Maps
The Christchurch City Council will today decide if it will make changes to the roads outside the Christchurch Hospital, which could slow access for emergency services but increase available parking.
Council staff have reported back on a number of options for a portion of Hagley Avenue and Riccarton Avenue, including closing a traffic lane to allow more on-street parking.
The council report says that since November 2022 there has been multiple Notices of Motion requesting that on-street parking is reinstated on the Hagley Park side of the roads leading up to the Christchurch Hospital.
In October/November 2023 a trial was undertaken to look at the impact of closing the kerbside lane at the Hospital Corner of Hagley and Riccarton Avenues.
The council staff report has presented five options, but is recommending the council goes with option four, which would be to do nothing and keep the current situation with no on-street parking.
The report said that the monitoring during the trial showed that closing a traffic lane - either permanently or intermittently - would significantly affect road users passing through the Hospital Corner intersection.
It said this was especially noticeable for emergency services and public transport.
It could also impact access to and from the recently opened private car parking building on Hagley Avenue.
The report said shutting the lane to traffic and allowing parallel parking on both stretches of road, or time restricted parking at night only, could result in up to 53 additional on-street parks.
In response to the trial shutting one lane, St John Ambulance said that the lane closure consistently delayed ambulance access to the emergency department, especially during peak-time congestion.
At its worst it slowed ambulances' arrival at the emergency department by 10 minutes.
The report said the majority of the feedback was opposed to the change.
Many of the requests to re-instate on-street parking have come from councillor Aaron Keown.
Keown said he thought it would be worth creating some delays on the road in order to improve parking access.
In addition to on-street parking, he would also like to see other options, such as a public parking building and being able to park on the Hagley Park berm.
"You don't get shopping malls building big attractions that draw people in and then charge people to park," said Keown.
"They make their facility accessible so it is easy to use. Yet people at a hospital are under a lot of stress and often very vulnerable income wise. They need the most support, yet it would seem in this country hospitals are some of our least accessible spaces."
Keown said he had been emailed by a family who had been at Christchurch Hospital, waiting to see doctors before their father's life support machine was to be turned off.
"The doctors were delayed. The four family members waited. When they went back to their cars they all had parking tickets. On the day they had to meet with doctors to turn off their father's life support. If anyone thinks that that is okay, and they are involved in parking than they are in the wrong business."
Keown said he expected the council will opt for the do nothing option, and he said this Christmas there would be plenty of people under stress at the hospital who were having to rush out to pay parking or getting parking fines.
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