By Margaret Maccoll
The Park Road temporary pathway will now be removed after Noosa Council backflipped on its earlier decision to retain it.
It came down to a casting vote from the chair at Council’s Ordinary Meeting last Thursday that led to the final decision after the vote was three in favour, three against.
What changed the decision was a change of chair with Mayor Clare Stewart casting the deciding vote for its removal.
There was again robust decision as there had been previously at Council’s General Meeting chaired by deputy mayor Frank Wilkie who had cast the deciding vote to retain it.
The argument last Thursday focused on Council honouring a promise it had made to one resident that the temporary pathway would be removed following the completion of the road’s $7m boardwalk.
The pathway was built to provide pedestrian access to Noosa National Park during the construction of the boardwalk from April to November 2018. The cost to retain and upgrade it to meet council standards was estimated at $100,000 with the cost of removal about $130,000
Cr Tom Wegener led the argument to remove the pathway.
In addition to Council’s need to honour their promise Cr Wegener argued the pathway only benefited four properties, providing those residents safe access to the national park but raised safety issues for anyone else who would need to cross the busy Park Road to access it.
Cr Brian Stockwell favoured retaining the pathway, describing its retention as “financial rationality” and describing the move not as a broken promise but as “adaptive management”.
Cr Karen Finkel said to retain the pathway would be going against council’s adherence to process.
She said in the two years planning and design of the boardwalk construction the intention to retain the temporary pathway had never been raised and should not be decided by councillors without due process.
Cr Frank Wilkie called from community consultation to be conducted on the future of the pathway but that was rejected.
The final vote called for council staff to remove the temporary path as soon as possible with funding for the removal to be sourced from other project savings or at a future budget review.
