A Bethlehem business owner believes they are making progress in the fight to keep public parking on State Highway 2.
Business interests and residents repeated their concerns at a meeting organised by the Bethlehem Progressive Association this week, attended by 36 people including Bay NZTA head Rod James, and several Tauranga City Councillors.

Mark Arundel and Kelvin Gregg say NZTA appears to be taking onboard his concerns about public parking.

Chemist Mark Arundel says about 30 businesses on the southern side of the highway through Bethlehem stand to lose about half their customers when the four laning project removes parking from the northern side of the road.
The four laning project will use the current parking lane as the left lane of two lanes heading towards the Moffat Road roundabout.
Customers travelling into town wanting to briefly stop at the Bethlehem shops do not have anywhere else to stop, says Mark. The parking for the shopping centre is private property and not available to them.
'People on the way into town shouldn't have to side track into the Bethlehem Shopping Centre,” says Mark.
If village customers are unable to stop on the other side of the road the village shops will lose half their impulse business – people stopping to pick up prescriptions, buy lotto tickets or lunch on the way into work.
Diverting into the shopping centre takes business off the village. At present, 34 out of a possible 60 shops are now open.
'We want a safe viable option at Bethlehem,” says Mark.
'My take on it is, I think Rod James is taking on board a lot of the issues that have been raised over the last month or two – like the pedestrian crossing. I think they have listened really well to the concerns.”
Marks says the doubters have difficulty understanding how four laning 300m of road through the Bethlehem town centre will make any difference to traffic congestion they believe is caused by the two lane Wairoa Bridge.
A replacement four lane bridge planned as part of the Northern Arterial is at least 10 years away. Mark says a suggestion from the meeting is to build the Northern Arterial sooner as a two lane highway instead of four.
A question that hasn't been answered is if the NZTA's present advisers are the same ones behind the previous bout of Bethlehem street works six years ago. The issues about congestions and traffic growth were the same then as now. The Northern Arterial was still the alternative and the present situation makes the previous works a waste of time and money.
'They didn't get it right,” says Mark. 'Are we using the same consultants, when they were so wrong last time?”