CAMERON Street shop owners are up in arms over a Port Macquarie-Hastings Council decision to install a bus stop in the street without their agreement.
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Rohnda Pearse, who has owned the Wauchope Barber Shop for 22 years, said she got the shock of her life earlier this month went she arrived to find a man with a jackhammer hard at work on the footpath outside her shop.
"I asked him what he was doing and he said it was a bus stop and was surprised I didn't know about it," she said.
"I told him I had the proposal for the new bus stop and it was for 13 metres up the street in front of the vacant block, not in front of here.
"He called the engineer to come out, who said it had been moved after consultation and we should have commented on the proposal if we had an issue.
"I said we didn't comment on the proposal because it was further up the street in front of the vacant block and wasn't a problem!
"I told him putting it in front of the shop was a real problem because we couldn't afford to lose parking spaces there.
"He indicated nothing could be done to change it now."
Ms Pearse talked to other shop owners, and found that some hadn't even been notified by council of the first proposal for further up the street, let alone the decision to move the bus stop south down the street.
"I personally never received any notification at all and the only proposal I have seen went to another business owner who let me see their copy," she said.
The loss of five or six much used parking spaces in a street where parking was in short supply would have a major impact on her business, she believed, because many of her clients were elderly and liked parking close by.
She also got a lot of spur-of-the-moment trade from people driving past who would decide to have a haircut when they saw an empty space.
What made it even harder to bear was that the parking spots were gone for the entire day but the bus stopped there only a few times a day for several minutes.
Ms Pearse said it was common sense that the bus stop needed to be moved from where council had put it.
"Times are hard enough as it is without council making them even harder by doing something like this," she said.
Ms Pearse and her adjoining business owners have started a campaign to get council to reverse its decision, writing letters to council, Busways and the Department of Transport.
They have also enlisted the aid of the Wauchope Chamber of Commerce and Wauchope-based Cr Sharon Griffiths.
Wauchope Chamber of Commerce president Rob Hamilton said he had sent what he would describe as "a letter of criticism" to council.
"One of the main issues is the consultation process, with the bus stop just planted slap-bang in the middle, like it or lump it," he said.
"Why take away car parking that is in use for 12 hours a day for a bus that just stops a few times a day for a few minutes?
"It's just out of kilter. Let's try and get the communications process going a lot better.
"I would like council to look at it again and come up with a more community-based solution."
Cr Griffiths told the Gazette she had objected to the bus stop's current location when it come up for discussion at a recent council meeting.
"The information provided showed that the bus was double parking to let people off because the parking was filled," she said.
"One business objected to the original proposal because their clientele would find it difficult to walk the distance to access their health business.
"The question I asked at the council meeting was how many options were presented for the location of the bus stop and could other locations be presented for consideration.
"One possible alternative option could be Bransdon Street on the east side which is often vacant and may be a better location which would drop residents more centrally to town."
Cr Griffiths said she would be following up to see if any solution could be found.
"I am sure that council and Busways could agree to find a more suitable location which would interfere less with parking and access for residents," she said.
Asked for an official comment, Port Macquarie-Hastings Council Infrastructure and Asset Management Director Jeffery Sharp said the new bus zone was installed to address a safety issue whereby buses had no safe place to drop off and pick up passengers on Cameron Street, between Young and High streets.
Letters informing land owners and tenants of the proposal were sent in December 2014 and the bus zone was moved 13 metres south as a result of community feedback following that letter, he said.
"We acknowledge business owners' concerns. However, safety is paramount and the bus zone is located in the most appropriate location to ensure this," Mr Sharp said.