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Gerry Wright / Supplied
Last-minute Christmas shopping was cut short for disabled people at Three Kings, with the parking lot blocked by a dumpster.
An 82-year-old veteran is furious that a dumpster blocked disabled parking at a local shopping plaza in the days leading up to Christmas.
The container occupied one of the two disabled parking spots at Three Kings Plaza for the past four days, and Gerry Wright’s attempts to contact the company behind it did not solve the problem.
Waste management company Green Gorilla said the container has already been removed and a memorandum was sent to its drivers to prevent it from happening again.
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But Wright said he was concerned that disabled people at Three Kings may have missed the opportunity to do their last-minute Christmas shopping.
“The parking lot is there especially for disabled people, not for bloody trash cans,” Wright said.
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“I am quite upset, as surely they should have it in their instructions for drivers not to leave containers in handicap parking spots.”
Wright, who served in the Navy for 26 years, underwent major knee surgery last month and is using a cane to walk while he recovers.
Supplied
Auckland veteran Gerry Wright is furious that the Green Gorilla dumpster blocked handicap parking at Three Kings Plaza.
“I can’t walk very far, and if I can’t get a parking lot close to where I want to go, then I can’t go there,” he said.
“Twice I went there, and twice I couldn’t park there. In fact, I was quite furious, I couldn’t get what I wanted to cook for dinner that night.”
Wright said that while she has done all of her Christmas shopping, she worries that other disabled people in the area will miss out if they are late.
Google Maps / supplied
Three Kings Plaza is a popular shopping area that fewer disabled people have been unable to access in the days leading up to Christmas.
He contacted Green Gorilla, but said his concerns were met with “little interest.”
“During the two days that I spoke to them, they weren’t very interested. They wanted me to find out who ordered the container, they wanted me to find the address,” he said.
Green Gorilla operations manager William McLaren said a customer had ordered the container to be placed in the disabled parking space for a job.
“As this was arranged by the customer, the driver assumed he had the approval of the center administration and the container was allowed to be at this location,” he said.
“From now on we will ensure that we have written approval from the center management with a permit prior to delivery. A memorandum was sent to our drivers not to put containers in handicap parking lots. “
McLaren said it will investigate which staff members responded to Wright’s concerns.
