EDITOR – Thank you for bringing the very big problem of red line parking around the Atrium to everyone’s attention.
When the road was resurfaced outside The Atruim and our block of flats Ridgedale, which is directly across from The Atruim, the residents who park in the front of our property were over the moon to see the red lines that were painted across our entrance and on either side of it, but that was short lived.
Within a day, it was back to normal, with no one understanding what the red lines meant.
When you come round the corner from Sparks Road and try to get into our property and someone is parked on either end of the entrance it is near impossible to get in, so you hold up the traffic, while you try to get them to move. The worst are the taxis that just park across the entrance and will not move until they have picked up everyone and off loaded them. Likewise, when you are coming out, one cannot see what is coming across the robot or around from Vause Road side, because of all the cars parked there, it is an accident waiting to happen.
When you approach the car that is parked illegally and ask them to please move, the abuse that you get is unprintable.
I have taken pictures and phoned a number of people and every now and again the police come and put two or three tickets on the cars there but before the owners come out, they have disappeared. Even if there are other cars parked on both sides of the road, they do not get ticketed. It is like the Metro Police do not want to be there when the drivers return to their cars. The police need to be seen there daily for a week or two day and night, which I can understand is expensive and they could be doing other important things, just so that the illegal parkers get the message,that to park here you will get ticketed.
The only good thing is that the centre seems to close at or around 10pm so the cars leave then as well and so far it has not been noisy with them doing so.
We the residents are fed up with this ongoing problem.
The car guards that are in the street day and night whistle for people to park there, even if no car is in sight, which is most annoying.
The Atruim runs its airconditioning day and night which sounds like water running and the ocean outside our windows, and all the lights are on as bright as can be, day and night. The only good kind thing they do is switch the advertising lights on the exterior out at 10pm but they come back on at 12am for about 10 minutes. When it comes to power outages and one is asked to reduce your usage, what is The Atruim doing to help?
The security guards of The Atruim pull up the security gate to the parking in Ridge Road by hand at 4am and it makes a terrible noise so we do not need an alarm clock to wake us.
Just to put things into perspective Ridgedale was built in 1964 long before Overport City was built.The old owners were very understanding of the residents living around them.
It really would be appreciated if you could do something to assist us as enough is enough.
Sheila Rice
Berea
