Tauranga City Council is forging ahead with enforcing fines for those using the Links Ave bus lane, despite a petition asking for them to be refunded.

In a meeting on Monday, commissioners voted to continue the minimum four month trial that closed the eastern end of the Mount Maunganui street and not refund the tickets.

In late March, two bus lanes were formed between Solway Place and Concord Ave, accessible only to busses, emergency vehicles, and bikes, effectively turning Links Ave into a cul-de-sac.

Anyone using the bus lane receives a $150 fine.

In April, Matt Nicholson started a petition calling for all fines to be refunded, it gained 5626 signatures.

He presented the petition to council at a meeting last month with the support of around 40 people in the public gallery.

Nicholson says the commissioner's decision was 'disappointing”.

Matt Nicholson's petition calling for all fines to be refunded gained 5626 signatures. Photo: Alisha Evans/SunLive.

'It's a shame that they haven't paid any attention to the petition at all.”

As of June 1, close to 17,000 fines were issued, this equates to around $2.5 million in revenue.

Council director of transport Brendan Bisley says about 20 per cent of the tickets issued had been waived and this was mainly for first time offenders.

'In terms of refunding the tickets we did send warning letters out, so eight and a half thousand warning letters were sent.”

Council did media advertising, a social media campaign and newsletters were sent to inform people of the trial, says Bisley.

'We think there has been plenty of warning of the tickets being in place.”

Commissioner Stephen Selwood. Photo: John Borren/SunLive.

Commissioner Stephen Selwood asked council staff how many infringements had been issued to residents of Links Ave and the surrounding streets as opposed to commuters.

'If you live in the local area, you should be able to use your local street as distinct from those who are using it as a rat run,” he says.

This was met with applause from the handful of people in the public gallery, who were at the meeting to hear council's decision.

Council regulation monitoring team leader Stuart Goodman says 711 fines were given out to those whose vehicles were registered to an address on Links Avenue, Golf Road, Concord Avenue or any of the streets that come off Links Avenue.

Bisley says the reason for the first and second trial was after repeated approaches from the community around safety concerns.

Links Ave is a travel corridor for three schools, Mount Maunganui Intermedia, Mount Maunganui College and Omanu School.

It was seeing between 7000 and 75000 vehicle movements a day and this was increasing by around 2000 vehicles per year, according to council data.

Links Ave is classified as a residential street and acceptable traffic volumes are around 2500 vehicles per day.

A Safe System review was carried out in March last year which identified the street wasn't safe, says Bisley.

'We don't have the ability to just stop the trial and leave it the way it was,” he says.

'We need to come up with an alternative option before we actually just remove the trial.”

Council have resolved to form a community panel to discuss alternative layouts for the street in order to implement the safety outcomes needed after the trial.

Selwood says the panel was "a vital step" in the project.

Commission Chair Anne Tolley. Photo: John Borren/SunLive.

Commission Chair Anne Tolley says: 'the reality is we're [council] is going to be in the hands of that community panel”.

She says once the group was established, 'if it's working well, why wouldn't we be listening to them and taking their advice?”

Nicholson was dubious if the panel's input would be seriously considered because they hadn't listened to the petitioners.

'The interesting part of that is 5,600 plus people gave them some feedback and the feedback wasn't accepted,” he says.

'It does question in my mind, whether there's a lot of value for the people that will join that panel, because if they're not listening to more than 5000 people, how can they expect to listen to a small group.

'It doesn't hold a lot of hope out for anything to change because by the time they set up the panel, we are looking at being towards the end of the initial trial period.”

Bisley says criteria for solutions must include safety for vulnerable users, keeping traffic volumes below 2500 vehicles per day, bus services maintained and costs kept below $1.5 million.

'If the community panel can come up with a solution that can achieve those outcomes, from a council staff perspective, we would be absolutely more than happy to have a look at that and implement it if it's going to work,” he says.

'We need a solution that we can implement following completion of the trial that keeps it safe until we get to the end of the Baypark to Bayfair construction.”

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