Media Release: For Immediate Release
17 January 2014

Council parking wardens’ back pain cure

Thanks to some good ol’ Kiwi ingenuity, Napier City Council parking wardens are working to prevent back pain.

Following a back injury prevention seminar, hosted by legendary former weightlifter Precious McKenzie,  the team came up with a prototype ‘wand’ with chalk attached at the end to save them bending and twisting when marking car tyres.

Napier City Council Parking Warden, John McKelvie, says his colleagues all know they will eventually, if they don’t already, suffer from back pain as it’s just the “nature of the job”.

“Talking about this with Precious at the seminar was great,” Mr McKelvie said. “It inspired us to do something about it so we had a chat at a team meeting.

“The next thing we knew, we had designed a prototype ‘wand’ made out of a piece of irrigation tube and a $2 chalk holder.”

The parking team now have their prototype in action out on the streets of Napier.

“It is an excellent outcome for our team. In one day using the ‘wand’ two of the wardens said it made such a difference to their back, it was amazing. They had no pain at all by the end of the day.”

The parking team are now looking to improve on their invention by working on producing a telescopic wand which they can fold away to put in their pockets.

ENDS

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