The Porirua mayor is fed up with people illegally taking mobility parks, calling them "absolute pests" who are "bloody lazy".
The worsening problem has prevented some people living with disabilities getting to appointments and buying groceries, and the Government's looking at making nationwide changes to crack down on rule-breakers.
The maximum fine is $150 and hasn't been changed since 2008.
Porirua mayor Anita Baker told 1News: "$150 for a fine is cheap – people don't care. They just go away, throw the ticket away."
"I find them just absolute pests... These people are just being bloody lazy and they just need to stop it."
Porirua's mayor Anita Baker has joined the fightback against "lazy" motorists. (Source: 1News)
Local resident Mary Humphreys is an amputee and reliant on mobility parks.
She said "every single time" she went out, she saw someone wrongly taking a mobility space.
Regular parking spaces are not wide enough for her to independently manoeuvre out of her vehicle and has had to call on others to help.
The Government’s looking at making nationwide changes to crack down on rulebreakers. (Source: 1News)
"I had to ask a complete stranger if they would move my car out so that I could get into it. It was pretty scary handing over the keys."
On occasion, she has confronted people wrongly taking mobility spaces – but one interaction with a driver left her traumatised.
"He threatened to kill me. It was the worst thing ever. The man started getting out of his car. I was shaking."
Mary Humphreys (Source: 1News)
Fellow mobility park user Rolleston Tutahi has also been limited by "ignorant" people illegally taking the parks.
"They are a nuisance, but there's nothing much I can do about it."
In response to a public petition of more than 2700 signatures asking for a crackdown on those wrongly taking mobility parking, a select committee report last year said the fine should needed a "significant increase" and adjustment for inflation.
The Ministry of Transport has since reviewed the regulations and sent recommendations to Transport Minister Simeon Brown.
Brown told 1News the misuse of mobility parks had left people in need "considerably disrupted" and he was "currently considering" the ministry's advice.
Drivers are fined around $500 in some Australian states, and New South Wales has a similar fine, plus a demerit point censure.
Porirua Mayor Anita Baker (Source: 1News)
The Porirua City Council issued 93 infringement notices in the past year, but acknowledged most people were getting away with breaking the rules.
Foundation for Equity and Research community coordinator Pip McLean said rule-breakers were preventing people with disabilities living independently.
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Those who hold mobility permits say naming and shaming isn’t enough, with both fines and making sure private parks are policed properly needed.
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Tauranga woman Claire Dale has spent the past two years campaigning to clamp down on offending drivers, delivering a petition to parliament in February 2022.
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"They're putting additional barriers in place for a disabled person to go out for coffee, to attend an appointment... In a lot of cases, it means they just simply go home because it's too hard," she said.
More than 160,000 Kiwis hold a mobility parking permit and that number is expected to rise over the next decade.
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