A political billboard trailer for Christchurch Central’s National candidate Dale Stephens was found parked on yellow lines and blocking a lane on busy Cranford St last week.
A social media post showed a tow truck driver and a city council parking officer inspecting the trailer, parked just north of the intersection with Berwick St, near English Park, last Friday.
The small section of Cranford St has two northbound lanes. There is no bus lane, but the leftmost lane is a 24/7 clearway.
A volunteer had parked the trailer there, Stephens said.
“(It) was a simple mistake by a first-time volunteer who was asked to put the trailer out as the usual volunteer was away that day,” he said.
“He made a mistake about the location and feels terrible about it. As soon as we found out about it, we took steps to resolve the situation.”
The city council issues $100 parking tickets for “stopping, standing or parking on broken yellow lines”.
Stephens did not answer questions about whether the city council issued an infringement for the bad parking. He also did not answer who was covering the cost.
Social media users reacted negatively to the parking job.
One commenter claimed she had seen the tow truck remove the trailer.
Another said they saw “a lot of people having to swerve to the other lane to avoid it”.
And another said, “typical National MP thinking they rule the roost”.
Stephens told The Star: “I am ultimately in charge of our campaign, so please, if you want to direct any criticism, then please target me and not the volunteer. Any suggestion that this was anything other than a mistake is incorrect.”