Just who are the buses for?

FROM time to time there arises a perplexing situation which seems to beggar belief and run contrary to any ideas of common sense.

So it is with the Otago Regional Council and its highhandedness over providing some Dunedin bus passengers with the service they require. Or not providing it.

The council has taken an intractable approach to introducing a better bus route for Tahuna Normal Intermediate School pupils and those at Bayfield, King’s and Queen’s High Schools who live on the Otago Peninsula.

Go Bus stopped providing contracted schoolbus services last year. As a result, about 120 pupils from the peninsula have to use the No 18 bus and some then have to walk a couple of kilometres to get to school.

If the enforced walk to school was in a quieter part of the city, we could be less sympathetic towards the pupils and their aggrieved parents. But in this case, while the walk itself is not that onerous, it is along very busy streets without pedestrian crossings. This is especially concerning for the younger pupils at Tahuna and it is easy to see why parents are nervous about them having to cross such roads at rush hour and with dark winter mornings ahead.

Nobody reasonably expects the council to provide a bus service that is perfect for everyone. But nobody should have to walk for more than five or 10 minutes to get to their closest bus stop.

What grates is the council’s attitude to the community over this issue. Efforts by parents and schools to engage with the council and attempt a reconsideration appear to have been dismissed offhandedly or in arrogant fashion.

Macandrew Bay parent Jason Graham has been highlighting the drawbacks of the current bus route and trying to find a way around the impasse. He proposed two alternatives to the council to cut the length of the walk to Tahuna, but these were turned down by councillors last month.

In response, councillor and Otago regional transport commit tee chairman Trevor Kempton has hinted the council might consider changing the timetable to better suit the pupils but stopped short of saying route changes might be discussed.

Parents, school representatives and others endeavoured to take their petition of about 800 signatures to a full regional council meeting in Cromwell on Tuesday. But they were rebuffed because the council mistakenly thought the group wanted to repeat its request for route alterations. Instead they were asked to come back to the May 2 meeting.

Bizarrely, a glimmer of hope for their cause had been given by a council spokeswoman, who said chief executive Sarah Gardner and chairman Stephen Woodhead were meeting principals and board of trustees representatives from the schools on Tuesday. She told the ODT it would be ‘‘worthwhile to await the outcome of this meeting’’.

The outcome of the meeting? Go whistle Dixie.

Mr Graham says the petition reflects ‘‘a lot of frustration, disappointment and anger’’ and the council ‘‘can’t just keep sweeping this under the carpet’’. An online survey he ran showed peninsula parents were not planning on using the No 18 bus next term.

After the council — presumably inadvertently — raised false hopes of progress at Tuesday’s meeting, Tahuna Normal principal Tony Hunter declared ‘‘the game is just beginning’’.

The council has itself to blame for getting offside with and angering an increasingly large number of ratepayers. Who are councillors actually working for? This would appear to be a case of the tail wagging the dog.

One wonders how many regional councillors use the buses frequently. In fact, how many have ever used a bus?

There are clearly solutions. But the council’s intractability is a major concern and borders on bloodymindedness.

The council needs an injection of common sense and a slap on the wrist with a notsowet bus ticket.