City council staff have paid $50,000 to save themselves the bother of lifting out a wooden post every time council vehicles enter and leave the southern reclamation carpark.

The installation of the hydraulic bollards is being completed this week – much to the disgust and dismay of mayoral candidate Murray Guy.

The super bollards being installed on The Strand reclamation. Photos: Murray Guy.

The justification for replacing the old wooden bollards with the hydraulic system was for health and safety and efficiency reasons, says transportation manager Martin Parkes in a letter to Murray.

'An efficiency audit was undertaken which concluded that the expenditure of $50K will be paid back in staff time savings over a 2.5-year period; the audit looked at average time spent dealing with the wooden bollards, the number of visits to/from the car park each day, and number of staff using the car park,” says Martin's email.

Funding for the bollards is from a non-rates funded activity.

Council staff have moved into the southern reclamation carpark because of earlier complaints from retailers and businesses about vehicles being parked on-street in the vicinity of their Devonport Road offices.

'The vehicles parking on-street were in the main associated with our Building Services team who require access to their vehicles numerous times per day,” says Martin.

'Therefore parking within close proximity to the office ensures their business is operating efficiently.

'Following a review of nearby parking areas, it was determined that a revision of the car park layout on The Southern Waterfront area would provide the best solution to the problem.”

The new bollards will also ensure that persons who shouldn't be in that area don't have access to it. The bollards will also assist with the management of events and cruise ship buses, says Martin.

Murray wants to know why they could not have just put in a gate, like at the northern reclamation carpark.

The bollards are sensor activated for departing vehicles, with entry by a keypad.

'Nothing has changed for the existing mooring card holders except the access system,” says Martin.

'Instead of manually unlocking wooden bollards they now have a swipe card to activate the new hydraulic bollards.

'After the building team moved into the offices at Devonport Road, we started getting complaints about the building inspectors parking their cars in the city centre and taking up valuable parks for shoppers.

'The inspectors are in and out of the building all the time and need easy access to their vehicles. The waterfront park was the best solution to the problem.”