Tewantin Noosa Lions Club are leading a fight against Noosa Council’s closure of the Noosa Heads Lions Park to holiday car parking as they put questions on notice to councillors and garner support through a petition.
But Lions Club members say voicing their opinion is “democracy in action” as they continue to maintain a “close and happy relationship” with council.
Last month Noosa councillors voted 4:3 to seek State Government approval to provide paid parking in Noosa Heads Lions Park only during the 2023 Easter and Christmas holidays, then to put its future use to the community for feedback.
The Lions club want council to reverse their decision and allow car parking to continue school holidays and long weekends while they “actively seek input from all involved parties as to the future of car parking, make an informed decision and support all of Noosa in a sensible move forward”.
Councillors said the use of the Noosa Heads Lions Park for car- parking was contrary to the Department of Re- sources park designation, the Noosa planning scheme, the Noosa Transport Strategy and the Noosa Design Principles.
Deputy Mayor Frank Wilkie said with 14,000 vehicles accessing the Hastings Street precinct during peak periods, the 150-200 spaces offered in Lions Park don’t significantly improve supply or demand but do provide an incentive for motorists to enter the precinct, which increases congestion.
“The Lions Park will continue to be used for car parking, mostly by visitors from outside the shire, next Christmas and Easter (just gone),” Cr Wilkie said.
“During that time, there will be public consultation, possibly as part of the Destination Management Plan, to determine what we col- lectively want residents and visitors to experience in peak periods in our shire. How we use and respect our green spaces into the future will be a part of that question.”
The Lions Club which has operated car parking on the site for almost 20 years say they are providing a much needed service to the community and raising tens of thousands of dollars annually for local charities.
Over the Easter school holidays the Lions club collected more than 2300 signatures on a petition supporting the continuation of the car park and say their support for the car park was evident by people’s willingness to queue to sign the petition.
Club president Ian Glew said Tewantin Noosa Lions club have been parking cars in this park since December 2004 (close to 20 years) and the statistics spoke for themselves.
There were 15,500 cars parked in twelve months to Christmas – New year 2023 and 7,800 cars parked in the Christmas – New Year 2023 period alone, he said.
Ian said car parking has only operated for 10 weeks out of the 52 weeks of the year prior to council’s decision to increase access to the park for car parking during Covid when Tourism Noosa initiated a campaign to attract more drive tourists to the region to assist businesses during a difficult time.
Ian said the car parking provided ample vacant space in the park and around the BBQ areas for the public to enjoy for whatever activities they wanted and a family wanting to spend a day on the beach need parking to accommodate all their gear and equipment, finding it “extremely difficult” to carry on a bus.
“These points do speak for themselves and no one could possibly believe that removing car parking in Noosa Heads Lions Park will not increase traffic congestion,” Ian said.
The Lions Club last week put two questions to council’s Ordinary committee meeting.
In asking what the process was in reversing the motion to close the park to car parking, council acting CEO Larry Sengstock said a repeal or amendment of the motion would need to be in accordance with the Local Government Act 2009 or the Local Government Regulation 2012.
He said notice of a repeal or amendment would need to be given to each councillor five days prior to a meeting at which the proposal was to be made and councillors could defer consideration of the motion for up to three months.
The Lions Club also asked council if it would continue to allow the park to be used by the Noosa Triathlon which uses it for bicycle parking and they would consider contradictory if the park is to be reverted to green space.
“Use of the Lions Park for the Noosa Tri event is not viewed as contradictory to the reserve purpose and will be allowed to continue,” Mr Sengstock said. “The State has previously advised utilisation of a reserve for recreation for carpark purposes is a use inconsistent with the reserve purpose in accordance with State Policy – Operational Policy Secondary use of trust land the Land Act.”
