'Auckland's dumbest car park': Mayor Brown paints over parking spot

Mayor Wayne Brown has got on the tools to remove what he has dubbed “Auckland’s dumbest car park”.

After years of public complaints about a New North Rd parking spot, Brown has taken matters into his own hands, painting over the space in a video shared on social media.

The sole parking space on a busy double-lane thoroughfare near Mt Albert shops effectively reduces the route to one lane when being used.

“We have a totally unnecessary car park up here. One single car park on a really important road that blocks up traffic and causes a traffic jam.”

He said the busy Mt Albert junction was often effectively shut down to a single lane because of one car, to the annoyance of locals – including one “poor bugger” featured in the clip.

Brown can be seen painting by hand with a roller and operating the line-marking machine in what he calls his “first move at getting rid of dumb stuff”.

Signs protecting the park, which was in a bus lane, were also removed by Auckland Council.

“All these signs to protect one car park, and the businesses here have got car parks on board anyway. We don’t need any of that stuff,” Brown said.

The move is part of a campaign launched before the council took back control of the city’s roads on October 1.

Aimed at small, common-sense infrastructure improvements, the Quick Fix programme will involve the council implementing a series of everyday changes across the city.

Brown first asked for the public’s thoughts in August and has promised more changes based on that feedback.

“We’re getting rid of a whole lot of unnecessary traffic lights around the city. We’re doing stuff straight away that the public have told us about.”

Auckland Transport, meanwhile, will now only be responsible for running the city’s public transport.

“No endless paperwork or bloated budgets. Just simple, common-sense stuff that makes a real difference to people’s lives,” Brown said.