Fifty Place Child Care, Waipu, Whangarei District

Council staff supported this proposal but on the condition that very extensive widening be carried out on the public road. Their reasoning was a belief that there would be a rush of parents dropping off children in the morning and evening and that space was needed for their vehicles.

Dean started by identifying the Council’s concern as, entirely, a parking issue. He then obtained and analysed arrival and departure data from several existing childcare centres. This showed that, in fact, the peak periods for arrival and departure are spread over a total of 4 hours each day and that a large proportion of parents were at the centre for only a short time. As a result, Dean determined that there is ample space on the site for the peak parking demand. The widening requirement was reduced to relatively small flares of only the entrance itself. As an aside, Dean also successfully argued for the carpark at this site to be unsealed.