FAQs

The Harold Thompson Park car park is due for renewal. This is a part of the City’s ongoing asset renewal program. Renewing the asphalt surface at the right time helps protect the underlying pavement and extend its useful life which reduces the need for more costly construction in the future. 

This project also gives us an opportunity to review how the car park currently functions, improve safety, accessibility and the overall parking experience for people who use the area.

Understanding how people use the car park helps us design a space that better meets the needs of visitors, local residents and community groups.

We'd like to know how often you visit, what you use the area for and any challenges you experience when parking or accessing the site.

We've noticed some people choose to park on nearby verges rather than in the car park. We'd like to understand why this happens so we can consider whether changes to the design could better meet the needs of people using the area.

This feedback will help us understand current parking habits and identify opportunities to improve the parking experience while protecting surrounding public spaces.

We know people may choose to park on the verge for different reasons. At the same time, informal parking can affect the condition of the verge and make pedestrian access more difficult.

As part of this project, we’d like to better understand how and why people use these areas for parking. This feedback will help inform a design that works for car park users while supporting safer pedestrian access and protecting the surrounding verges.

The draft design includes a range of improvements aimed at making the car park safer, more accessible and easier to use.

Key proposed changes include:

• 🌳 New trees to enhance the area and provide additional shade.
• 🚗 Updated parking layout and line marking to improve traffic flow and parking efficiency.
• ♿ New formalised accessible parking bays.
• 🚶 New kerbing to better define parking areas and pedestrian spaces.
• 🧱 New paving and surface treatments to improve the condition and usability of the car park.
• ✅ Improvements designed to support safer access for all users while helping protect surrounding verges and public spaces.

We're keen to hear your thoughts on these proposed changes and whether they will meet the needs of people who use the area.

No. This project focuses on renewing the Harold Thompson Park car park and improving parking, access and safety within the project area.

It is not. The focus of this project is the car park.

There may be some improvements in areas surrounding the car park where they directly relate to parking, pedestrian access, accessibility or safety. For example, works that help improve access to and from the car park may be considered as part of the project.

However, improvements to the reserve itself that are not related to parking or access are outside the scope of this project.

Protecting existing trees is an important consideration for this project. The draft design has been developed to work around existing trees where possible while improving the functionality of the car park.

We'd still like to hear from you. Understanding why people don't use the car park can be just as valuable as understanding how it is used.

We'll review all feedback received during consultation and use it to help refine the final design.

We'll also share a summary of what we heard and how feedback was considered.

The project is currently in the design and consultation phase. Construction timeframes will be confirmed once the design has been finalised and project planning is complete.