The Doug Coutts Memorial Motorcycle Park - in memory of the long fight to get our motorcycle park back

Fancy a coffee but don’t want to walk too far from your scoot? Now you can in College St. It was towards the end of last year that the WCC announced a clampdown of motorcycles, especially scooters, parking on the footpath. The practice was a hazard to pedestrians, said the Council, and besides, there were plenty of designated bike parks around the CBD – just look at the handy map. http://www.wellington.govt.nz/services/p arking/pdfs/mcycle-parking.pdf The map was indeed handy although it was a little inaccurate, as a trip to Caffe L’Affare proved. On the map there was a motorcycle park in College St just opposite L’Affare; on the street itself there was freshly painted pay-anddisplay car parking, a result no doubt of the Moore Wilson refurbishment.

So in October 2009 I sent a grumpy email to the WCC information people asking , if illegal motorcycle parking was frowned upon, why the Council was removing legal parks. In a matter of weeks the reply came. Apparently there had been a mix-up between departments – the department in charge of providing parking spaces had failed to check on the department in charge of painting white lines and planting street signs after the extensions to Moore Wilson’s posh nosh

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emporium, but never fear, sanity – and the bike park – would soon be restored. Perhaps we should redefine the word “soon”. In April 2010 there was at last advice from the Council that they were still planning on restoring the bike park, moving it across to the other side of College St, but first they would have to call for submissions and wait for objections. Excited, I started taking trips down College St on a weekly basis so I could be one of the first to use the new park and perhaps even have a flat white into the bargain. After 8 months of no park and even less L’Affare coffee, I decided to risk another grumpy email. On November 28 I enquired about progress on the new bike park and a day later got a reply saying they’d referred it the proper department. I assumed that was code for another month or more of delays, but no, the very next day I got a call from Alan Morris of Traffic Management apologising for the delay and advising that he’d just sent off a works order for the signage for that park and another on the other side of College St close to Cambridge Tce. He pointed out that it would now be a 2hour maximum, not all-day, park and we agreed that’s as much time as a bloke needs for a coffee and a muffin.

A week later, the park was there. No one’s using it at the moment it seems, but it’s only a matter of time before word gets out. I’m wondering though, since I made the first fuss, if the spot closest to L’Affare’s front door should be rightfully mine. A plaque at the very least would be nice.

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