By Phil Jarratt
Little Cove residents gathered at Noosa National Park at sunset last Sunday for a quiet celebration of people power, having overturned a Noosa Council planned trial of parking restrictions that would have made their lives a nightmare.
Council reconsidered the six-month trial last Friday afternoon after having received a petition signed by more than 200 residents and considered feedback on all the issues from many of them. The council plan, claimed to be aimed at stopping overnight campervan parking, was to introduce four-hour parking restrictions 24/7 on most of the residential streets bordering the National Park, forcing family, friends, carers and tradies to park as much as a kilometre away.
Noosa Today understands council’s rethink was brokered by new infrastructure director Larry Sengstock, with the support of Cr Amelia Lorentson, who is a Little Cove resident.
According to the official statement: “In response to community feedback, Council has shelved plans for a timed parking trial in the Little Cove area. Director of Infrastructure Services Larry Sengstock said Council received a range of feedback from the community and has decided to not go ahead with the trial.
“The community wanted us to look at ways to better manage illegal camping and parking demand in the area and we considered this as one of the options,” he said. “But based on the feedback, the potential impacts to some in the community and further discussions with staff and councillors, we’ve decided not to proceed with the trial.”
Cr Lorentson told Noosa Today: “Traffic is only an issue during peak times. As a councillor, I believe that we should be rethinking how we manage tourism. For tourism to have a future, we need to start putting the interests of our residents first. As a resident of Little Cove, I thought (the plan) just seemed unnecessary. This is a quiet residential precinct where tourist and residents get along very well. Residents here have chosen to live in a tourist precinct, and that decision means accepting that at times, we will have traffic and parking issues. Small price to pay for living in paradise.”
