Parents take bus petition to regional council

Concerned parents and public will present regional councillors with a petition of nearly 2000 signatures to save the school buses this afternoon.

Bay of Plenty Regional Council has extended its cut-off date for public submissions on the controversial restructuring of Tauranga's BayHopper and SchoolHopper bus services by one week.

Council was consulting with public on the proposal to get rid of most school buses and instead put students on to Bayhopper public buses.

The plan was part of proposed improvements to the BayHopper service, which included making them faster and more frequent - but would also cut 45 school buses down to 11.

Head of Aquinas College Parent-Teacher Association and concerned parent Lee-Ann Taylor said concerned public would take their 'Save The Bus' petition to regional council's First Ave offices at 1pm today.

A Welcome Bay parent started the petition on change.org in mid-May.

"We have 1785 signatures on it now," said Mrs Taylor. "We will be presenting it as a group of concerned parents."

Mrs Taylor said this afternoon's presentation of the petition was going to be "very exciting". "It would be the most I've seen Tauranga come together to support a petition against council."

She said saving the school buses was a way bigger issue than just keeping the children safe."It effects our whole community."

"It is really disheartening that they are not working it out and finding a better solution.

"We want the school buses to stay. We want the elderly and everyone else using public transport to be able to use the buses safely. What happens to the elderly and everyone else on the bus when all the kids get on?"

Mrs Taylor said there are concerns more parents would have to drive their kids to school if students are put on Bayhopper public buses.

She said the city's infrastructure was not ready to support more people on the roads. "Our roads are not big enough. We want to take people off the roads rather than putting them on it."

Concerned parent Michael Pugh lives in Welcome Bay and had four children who attend Bethlehem College.

He said the reason for the petition was to make the regional council aware of the community's wide-spread concern.

Mr Pugh had three main concerns of the plan to put students on public buses including safety of the children, getting kids to school on time and traffic.

"I am not 100 per cent sure I would want to put my eight-year-old daughter on a school bus that might change somewhere at Willow St before she gets to school."

He was also concerned about his daughter sitting with strangers on the bus.

"I would like to know how regional council can guarantee the children's safety."

Mr Pugh was concerned how students would get to school on time if they had to take a public bus.

"Kids need to get to school, not somewhere in the CBD," he said.

"It takes 45-50 minutes to get from Welcome Bay to Tauranga. I cannot imagine what will happen if the buses are cut from 45 to 11."

Traffic was also a concern fro Mr Pugh. He said if 1000 signatures on the petition belonged to parents who would have to drive their kids to school, that would mean 1000 more cars on the road between 7.30am-9am.

"The parents I have talked to all said if they had to, they would drive their children to school," he said. "That could mean that they would have to cut their work hours or quit work."