By JOLENE OGLE
THE wheels on the bus will continue to turn for Noosaville residents after their campaign to have local streets removed from bus route service 628 was shot down in State Parliament yesterday.
On 26 March, Noosa MP Glen Elmes presented a petition to Parliament with 146 signatures demanding Swan and Wylah streets and Creek Road, Noosaville, be removed from bus routes because residents didn’t believe they were suitable for use by a 12.5m bus.
A response to the petition was tabled in Parliament on Tuesday 5 May, with the Minister for Transport and Infrastructure Jackie Trad stating: “The roads in the Creek Road catchment are suitable for use by both urban and school bus services”.
In her letter, Ms Trad said Transport and Main Roads (TMR) had commissioned an independent audit of the Noosaville roads and the report confirmed the roads were safe to use.
“This report confirmed that Swan and Wylah streets and Creek Road are each of a width that is in accordance with the Transport Planning and Co-ordination Regulation,” she said.
“In addition, the audit confirmed the state and quality of the road surface and the lighting in this area is of appropriate standard and TMR has no evidence to suggest it is of such a standard so as to adversely affect the safe use of the route by buses.”
Ms Trad said stop utilisation data for all stops in the vicinity indicated “good use” by locals with 3900 passengers in the 2013/14 year, with consistent patronage across all week days and weekends.
“As such, removal of services from these roads would significantly impact on the local community, including residents of Lagoona Estate retirement village and Noosa Waters retirement village,” she said.
Ms Tran said no changes would be made to the services accessing Swan and Wylah streets and Creek Road.
