MP: ‘Engage with community over buses’

Bay of Plenty MP Todd Muller shares the concerns of constituents worried about proposed changes to school buses. File photo.

Bay of Plenty MP Todd Muller is calling on the Bay of Plenty Regional Council to actively engage with community concerns regarding proposed changes to Tauranga school bus services.

He says a number of families have been in contact with his office to express their concerns.

'A proposal to reduce the number of school buses from 45 to 11 and encourage children to use the public Bay Hopper service is not a minor tweak,” says Todd.

'This is a significant redesign of our bus network and our community deserves to have their concerns heard and taken into consideration.

He adds many local parents, him and his wife included, are anxious about the changes will work.

'The issue for families isn't the cost. It's the potential complexity of navigating interchanges, missing buses, being late for school, and the unknowns such as who else will be on the bus or what the weather will be like.

'My own family can relate to this in our lives. Anyone with kids knows it can be daunting enough for a child to catch a bus with older students – let alone with adults they aren't familiar with.”

He believes it will lead to some parents reverting back to driving their kids to school, putting more pressure on local roads and adding to congestion.

'We should be looking to make public transport as easy as possible for families and putting the right incentives in place, not building barriers.”

'Local families need to check what the proposals are, consider how they impact their lives, and engage with the consultation process to make sure their family perspective is heard. That is how we will get a public transport network that meets the needs of our community,” says Todd.

'It is up to Bay of Plenty Regional Council to run a true full and fair consultation process that has no predetermined outcomes and find a solution that works for our community. I have every confidence that they will.”

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7 comments

Good call

Posted on 30-05-2017 10:49 | By mutley

There is no doubt that traffic congestion, especially on SH2, is greatly reduced during the school holidays and becomes bad again on the day that school goes back. Good call by Todd Muller. We need to be encouraging parents and their offspring to use buses more, and not the opposite effect which the proposal by BOPRC will have.


I AGREE

Posted on 30-05-2017 13:08 | By Laurie

with Mutley but perhaps we wouldn't be looking at having the School Hopper service cut if everyone paid their fair share - yes there are some schools (have a guess) where the students still travel for free. Bay of Plenty Regional Councillor Lyall Thurston is on record saying that the present situation of having the School Hopper service subsidised by ratepayers is untenable - well I for one don't mind paying a little to have the service if it helps reduce traffic congestion & by the way I'm already paying around $35 a week for my 2 kids to bus from Bethlehem to Otumoetai College.


Hardly likely , sorry Todd.

Posted on 30-05-2017 17:45 | By CC8

More incompetence and waste from a local council, this time it is BOPRC.Today my Mum received in her Greerton mailbox 3 flyers from drivechange.co.nz.( all the same)Interesting thing is that they have "community sessions" .....at bus stops!! . 22 and 23 May in Tauranga and Bayfair, and today in Te Puke and Katikati . Wow how enlightened!! First it says " Tell us what is important to you" Then the net paragraph is "What we are changing ?" ..fait accompli ? The map has routes marked with no matching legend and the legend and annotations that are there do not accurately describe the area they are ascribed to.All designed and made by Australian company "Bang the table" ...another crock from another council. What does BOPRC staff actually do? Choose ( their mates as ) contractors??


School Transport

Posted on 30-05-2017 19:26 | By sangrae

A good call by Todd and Laurie BOPRC need to commicate with the parents and schools, if as Mr Thurston has said previously he has spoken with certain schools please name them , me thinks he is talking out of turn and is out of his depth how about the head of the council speaking up are they scared there decision will be overturned i sincerly hope so.


SMOKESCREEN FROM TODD MULLER??

Posted on 01-06-2017 12:56 | By Laurie

You have to wonder as Regional councillor and former Tauranga mayor Stuart Crosby responded, "Did he (Todd) mention that the Government forced this on us?" So there we have it the push for this change is from central government - not just the BOPRC. If its about saving money why on earth don't they get rid of the full size Bay Hopper buses that trundle around either empty or with a small number of passengers - replace them with smaller buses that will cost less to purchase & run them more frequently. This saving could then be put into a new School Hopper service which according to Mr Lyall Thurston is heavily subsidised by the ratepayers which I find hard to believe as it costs me around $35 a week for my 2 kids to bus from Bethlehem to Otumoetai College & these buses are full!!


Who Will Be Responsible?

Posted on 07-06-2017 11:24 | By Bruja

As far as I'm aware it is illegal in this country to leave children under the age of 14 unsupervised. If true, then I want to know WHO will be responsible for any child under the age of 14 who are forced to travel on public buses? It won't be the school's responsibility if it's outside of school hours. It won't be the bus drivers who are paid to drive buses and whose responsibility is surely only while a child is actually on the bus, if at all. Whose responsibility will it be to be the 'legal guardian/supervisor' during those other moments in time from when the child leaves the school grounds and arrives at their place of residence? I ask again, WHO will be legally 'in charge' of these under 14's? Sounds likely to be illegal to me. Legal eagles thoughts please?


Beneficiaries

Posted on 11-06-2017 23:45 | By Uncle Ruckus

If the taxpayer wasn't having to provide free public transport for those goldcard waving baby boomers we could afford it for our children. Baby boomers are the enemy here. Biggest leeches in the history of the country.


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