Wellington City Council has spent $75,906.35 on shoes for its parking attendants over the past three years. Photo/Mark Mitchell

OPINION:

Parking wardens in Wellington walk up to 20km a day in rain, hail or sunshine, they are verbally abused and sometimes physically assaulted.

So I was hugely disappointed when the New Zealand Taxpayers Union launched an attack on Wellington City Council over how much money they are spending on new shoes for car park attendants.

Last week the Taxpayers Union ‘revealed’ that the council had spent $75,906.35 on the shoes over the past three years. The board purchased 264 pairs at an average cost of $287 per pair.

Union spokesman Louis Houlbrooke said that, as if parking attendants weren’t already costing taxpayers enough in tickets, they were also putting the boot in with surprisingly high shoe costs.

“At the Taxpayers Union, we recognize that parking attendants need decent shoes, but we urge council to put the shoe on the other foot and recognize how taxpayers, hammered by the rising cost of living, make careful choices to limit the cost of their own shoes.”

I’m sorry, what? Calling the council to spend money on new shoes for the parking attendants is just mean.

It is also grossly unfair to accuse guards of making taxpayers pay by issuing tickets.

People get parking tickets when they break the rules. Don’t shoot the messenger.

The Taxpayers’ Union has suggested councils placing large orders, with longstanding relationships with suppliers, should be able to take advantage of discounts.

Alternatively, he suggested the council could provide custodians with a $200 stipend each year to purchase their own shoes.

The spirit of the Taxpayers Union fact-finding mission and subsequent comments is mean-spirited.

Unnecessary spending by local governments should be exposed and councils held accountable.

But every dollar spent by the board should not be questioned. Providing new shoes for parking attendants who walk up to 20 kilometers a day is a necessity in my book.

Especially since being a parking attendant can be a pretty unpleasant job at the best of times.

The Herald recently found that fists, elbows and even an electric scooter were among the weapons used in attacks on parking attendants over the past year.

Some councils reported big jumps in abuse, others said it continued to happen.

In Wellington in particular, there has been a “significant increase” in the number and severity of assaults on caretakers since the first Covid-19 lockdown, said City Council spokesman Richard MacLean.

“It’s had an effect on overall employee turnover over the last 10-12 months, as people decide that coming to work just to be verbally abused every day is no longer rewarding.”

The Taxpayers’ Union even went so far as to say there was moral hazard: “Guardians will gladly wear their taxpayer-funded shoes with personal use.”

Personally, I highly doubt parking attendants would break out those big black boots to wear for leisure on Sundays. I used to work at a gas station and wouldn’t have dreamed of wearing my black steel hooded boots anywhere but work.

The council currently employs 57 parking attendants, who are each provided with two pairs of shoes for summer and winter.

Shoes are checked and replaced as often as every year and they should be.

A cost-of-living crisis doesn’t mean we should all of a sudden wonder if people employed in front-line jobs deserve new shoes.

Parking attendants are real people too.