u/gracefulgorilla

I went to the Margaret Mahy park this morning with my young kids. I am also heavily pregnant and suffering from a lot of pelvic pain, which limits me from walking very far.

I was very disappointed to see that the carpark right next to the playground was entirely full. This was not because of the number of families parking there, but because there were so many tradies vehicles parked in it (due to construction nearby).

I feel that this 120 minute free carpark should be for families with small children using the Margaret Mahy playground, not clogged up with tradies who are taking the parking spaces families need to use. There were mums with babies in the car driving round looking fruitlessly for an empty park while I was there, parking, after I actually asked a tradie nearby to move his truck.

Surely the managers overseeing the construction can figure out alternative parking for their tradies?

I am not normally a complainer but I don't know how to make this happen. Does anyone know who to contact?

Or am I overreacting and tradies should park in that carpark, leaving the families with young kids to find elsewhere to park and then walk in?

We have been offered an amount of money for our as is where is property in Christchurch by a developer. We think this is actually a little more money than we could get on the open market and are considering accepting this offer. However, we are going to be scraping the bottom of the barrel in terms of money for buying a new house for our family to live in (because we paid more for this house than we will get out of it, due to the structural damage we discovered after buying).

The developer is offering a 12 month settlement to give me time to birth the baby I am pregnant with, and also for them to line up consents & plans so they can build as soon as they take ownership.

We are worried about the market fluctuation in 12 months. If we are locked in to a contract with this developer and we can't buy a replacement property yet (because who is going to want a 12 month settlement with us?!) then we feel we are going to be twiddling our thumbs and waiting and watching prices rising.

Any ideas? Is this just a risk we have to wear?

Also what time of year is best for buying? Should we be negotiating a 9 month settlement so we buy in Autumn before winter comes and nothing new comes on the market?

Feel a bit unsure about how to proceed with all this...! Ideas welcome.