Orepuki fighting for bus stop

The Orepuki community will not allow the safety of their children to be put at risk by a proposed new school bus stop.

At a public meeting this week, more than 20 members of the community spoke out against the proposal for the bus stop for children attending schools in Riverton to be moved outside Orepuki.

The proposed stop will be at PahiaWakapatu Rd on State Highway 99, more than 4km outside Orepuki, and even further from town than the stop at the Monkey Island turn-off proposed last year.

The new bus route is intended to take effect from April 30, the first day of the second term, but parents attending the meeting were adamant that their children would be at the bus stop in Orepuki waiting to be picked up when the second term started.

Orepuki Community Development Area member Alastair McCracken presented a list of concerns to the meeting centred on the safety of the students taking the bus at the proposed new stop

The concerns included a lack of signage, shelter, and lighting at the proposed new site, as well as a lack of mobile phone coverage or any housing close by should urgent help be required.

There were also concerns around the lack of designated parking at the site, as as many of 20 children from Orepuki would use the stop, resulting in eight to 10 vehicles entering and leaving the site each morning, not counting those from outside Orepuki, McCracken said.

‘‘If it was just a rural bus stop at a farm gate with two children getting on the bus it would be a different matter – that happens all the time,’’ McCracken said.

Commercial operators also used the proposed site, and there were high traffic flows on the road especially during peak tourist season.

The location is in a 100kmh zone, on a sweeping bend, with parents concerned not only for the children while they are at the bus stop, but also for the potential for accidents when parents drop off and pick up their children from the stop and have to get onto the highway.

By contrast, the bus stop in Orepuki is on a fairly quiet street, opposite the community hall, with access to toilets and a playground, and the highway through Orepuki is straight and zoned 70kmh.

Parents would often call the hotel, just across the road from the present bus stop, if they were delayed and ask whether the children could come over and wait there, McCracken said. ‘‘The key part is that the safety and wellbeing of the child comes first,’’ he said.

Last year the issue of a change in the bus route was averted when three area schools – Riverton Primary School, Aparima College, and Waiau Area School – renewed an agreement that allowed the children in Orepuki to travel to Riverton for their schooling, even though Orepuki was zoned for Waiau and fell outside the Aparima/Riverton school bus zone.

‘‘They have one of the best bus shelters around, and they are taking it away form them,’’ McCracken said.

The community hopes the NZ Transport Agency will step in as they believe the proposed stop presents a serious safety issue not only to the children concerned but also to other road users.

The community intends to write a letter outlining their concerns to the agency, Southland District Council, as well as the schools involved.

It was also resolved that a delegation of community representatives approach the bus company to inform it of the community’s concerns and their unwillingness to expose their children to the potential issues the proposed stop presents.

A Transport Agency spokesperson said it was a Ministry of Education issue and would need to be discussed with them.