MCU15/0122 -PM Submission Object - Marie Sulda

Subject: Public comment on DA MCU15/0122 52-58 Goodchap and 3-7 Val Crescent Noosaville
From: Marie
Date: 2016-07-12T00:37:27+00:00
To: Mailbox Council Mail

Apologies for sending a public comment submission on the above DA MCU 15/0122, 52-58 Goodchap and 3-7 Val Crescent, Noosaville application,  from residential sites to commercial/medical centre use, but the Noosa Council website page marked for a submission was “not available” when I tried this morning.

As a regular visitor and patient to Noosa Hospital I have looked at the site in question and thought it could be ideal for medical use.. particularly for specialists who are practising  surgeons at the hospital.  However, there is the constant insufficient parking problems for the hospital, plus the obvious, additional  traffic egress to the immediate roundabout which is already very busy  and presenting substantial waiting.. and then quick timing.. to get out of the hospital grounds carpark.. should one have been lucky enough to find a parking space there.

Val Crescent has particularly come to my attention.  The hospital carpark normally being full and necessitating countless rounds looking for a space, the next option is Goodchap Street where the hospital staff thoughtfully park their vehicles. These cars present such a long line of vehicles that it is more practical (and more suited to a patient with limited walking ability) to seek a spot in Val Crescent... It is a smallish crescent, with many driveways and I am very conscious of not parking too close, or opposite to residents’ driveways.  As the crescent is usually busy and has few parking spots, I often have to park right at the end.  Then I have the walk back to the roundabout, the cross over the road (fast travelling motorists who are not at all sympathetic to people with pronounced limps already in the process of the crossing the road and it is a case of pedestrians speeding up even more, or being bowled over).  Once the entrance to the hospital carpark has been reached it is then a hopeful wait for the free golf cart buggy for a pickup and dropoff at the hospital doors.

The purpose of my email is to highlight the ALREADY woefully inadequate parking of  both the hospital, Goodchap Street and nearby Val Crescent. I have not seen the proposed plans for the medical centre.. but it is difficult to imagine that the developers will provide the parking spaces which would be REALLY needed for the medical centre’s clients. (e.g. not just a token number for the specialists and staff AND patients.)

I understand the residents’ concerns.. during  medical centres hours, getting in and out of their crescent could be a nightmare .. and there would be no parking left for the residents’ visitors/spillover of vehicles.

Noosa Hospital could certainly do with more visiting medical specialists, who may, or may not reduce waiting times for surgery, and who may , or may not, be working in the proposed medical centre.  However, it is NOW that Ramsay Health needs more parking in the extensive hospital grounds.. perhaps, multi-storied??  Of course if they start charging for parking, the problems on the nearby public roads will become even greater.  Not everyone has a driver to drop off/pick up, taxis are very expensive and the public bus service is inadequate, in its timetable.
Perhaps a community hospital bus, with donations, would be useful?? Parking charges at the new Kawana hospitals (which will eventually replace Nambour) are $14 a day.. and one can easily imagine that figure rising quite rapidly when the public teaching hospital is completed and thus sharing the present commercial carpark for the private teaching hospital,  which appears to be quite full.. with no other readily available roadside parking.

Thank you for hearing me out.

Ms Marie Sulda,  ratepayer, 40 Weyba Street, Sunshine Beach, Qld 4567. email is [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> and phs, 0407 617 865, 541 22 751.