Father Petrus Shiya described the Metro police as ‘arrogant, abuse of power by the trigger happy people because they have the authority’. Father Shiya said the Metro police could have handled the matter differently to what they did.
“I was surprised because our members have been parking there for years, they should have engaged the church before their abusive actions, this matter could have been resolved amicably.” He said the police action was unreasonable, aggressive, disrespectful and intimidating.
Father Shiya said “the church was a place where people went to praise the Lord in harmony and if they are intimidated where else must they go?”
He appealed to Metro police to treat people with courtesy. “We regard police as people who are there to help solve the problem not to punish the people, they should have approached us before they conducted themselves in such a manner. This is just a money making scheme.”
A parishioner, Margaret said she had attended the Maryvale Catholic Church for the last 40 years and had parked in St Mary’s Road, opposite the church for the 8am mass on Sunday mornings.
“All of a sudden, this last Sunday, the Metro were out in force leaving tickets on everyone’s car, including mine, saying that we had left an unattended car in a no-parking area.
“In St Mary’s Road there are no no-parking signs, there are no yellow or red lines down the sides of the road. Do I stop going to church as there will be a ticket every time I come out after mass?
“This is ridiculous. I am now waiting for the infringement notice which I will definitely challenge.”
Another parishioner, Frank Colbert said they were coming out of mass at the church and startlingly found three Metro police putting traffic tickets on their cars which were parked on both sides of St Mary’s Road, outside the church.
Colbert insisted that there were no no-parking sign posts on the street.
“They said the reason for the tickets was that it was a private road. Despite vigorous protests by a crowd of churchgoers, the police carried on writing tickets.” A query was sent to Metro police.
