By JOLENE OGLE
THE wheels on the bus will continue to turn for Noosaville residents after a campaign to have local streets removed from route 628 was shot down in parliament last week.
On 26 March, Member for Noosa Glen Elmes presented a petition to parliament with 146 signatures demanding Swan Street, Wylah Street and Creek Road, Noosaville, be removed from bus routes because petitioners didn’t believe they were suitable for use by 12.5m buses.
A response to the petition was tabled in parliament on 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 response, 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.
In a letter to petitioners advising of the decision, Mr Elmes said the Minister’s decision was final and the “matter is now closed”.
The issue of buses using the Noosaville roads was first brought to the attention of Mr Elmes in 2009, and since then three successive transport ministers have come to the same conclusion, Mr Elmes said.
Mr Elmes said he didn’t expect the residents of the mentioned roads would be impacted by the decision as the petition showed no signatories from Swan and Wylah streets and just 25 from Creek Road, 11 of whom are not registered on the Electoral Roll.
Of the remaining signatories, 72 were listed as living in the Noosa electorate but are not registered on the Electoral Roll, while four signatories were from far-north Queensland, 21 were from Brisbane and the remaining signatories were from surrounding suburbs from Pomona to Coolum.
