DEPUTATION - Sustainable Transport Applicant: Jennifer Clement on behalf of Zero Emissions Noosa Speakers: Anne Kennedy, Vivien Griffin and Jennifer Clement

Thank you Councillor Stockwell and Councillors for the opportunity to talk to you about what we consider to be a really important issue for the Shire. I think all of you know me. I'd say we haven't met Councillor Phillips yet but we are going to see her soon for a briefing. We have vivien Griffin with us who many of you know is a former Noosa and Sunshine Coast Councillor and fierce advocate for sustainable transport. And Jenny Clement who's our Chair of our transport working group. So I'll hand over to vivien to start. Thanks, Anne, and thank you very much for the opportunity to make this presentation to you today. As you know, ZEN has worked in partnership with Noosa Council on many issues. We greatly appreciate appreciative of that partnership. I'm going to set the scene, just looking at the present and some of the challenges that we see at the moment. But ZEN has a reputation for always looking at the positives. It's easy in Noosa to be against. It's much more difficult to be focused on the future and what we are for in the future. But just in setting the scene with transport policy, your current policy situation, you will be well aware of this, but I'll just recap. You have the transport policy, 10 years, 2017 to 2027. It has eight principles and 15 desired outcomes. And they all identify the right direction. It's inspiring reading for what the Council set out to do. The number one desired outcome in that policy is that residents and workers of Noosa Shire are able to go about their everyday day business without having to be reliant on private vehicles. Number one desired outcome. The other key policy document, Noosa cycling and Walking Strategy and implementation plan, 2020 to well that 2040 has got me worried. So that plan lists 369 projects, very thorough analysis of the warping and cycling needs in Noosa, 118 in the hinterland. And that's Kin Kin, Cooroy, Pomona, say corrine, obviously you know where the hinterland is, three and so and 251 on the Coast, so a total of 369. Only 38. Are identified as low-cost or missing link projects, so the others have been identified as very important. So that cycling plan was not about responding to tourism congestion, it's about responding to Noosa family everyday needs. Clearly needs a major focus to be delivered for benefit for residents. Across the Shire, not just the tourism hotspots. So that's the policy situation. If you have a look at the funding situation, and we think our timing's really good because you've got Shaun walsh's report coming up after us. So currently you've got the transport levy, $30 per rate payer, raising $939,000 per year, and interestingly large businesses pay exactly the same as the family in Cooran. That's an interesting amount. Point to think about. Go Noosa, as shaun's report will identify, costs $1.017 million, so more than the transport levy is raising. And currently, primarily for the free buses. And great that Shaun has brought that report for consideration by Council. The cycle path annual infrastructure commitment is $1.45 year. What progress has been made so far? Really, we have to ask that serious question and ask, can Councillors really say that 1.45 million is going to be enough to deliver those 118 hinterland and 251 coastal pathway projects, even if we're working on what I think is an unacceptable target of 2040. Interesting again that sean's report talks about the opportunities for e-bikes and e-scooters and the need for looking at infrastructure to enable safe choices of those lines to be made. So what do we see the perceived problems. One is the policy document set up great intent intentions but we think there's a shortfall in implementation. The transport policy has those fine principles and outcomes but it's too broad, it doesn't contain measurable outcomes and there's no clear action plan. For those reasons we would say there is a failure of governance as a lack of measurable outcomes means it's virtually impossible to have meaningful progress reviews. We think there's too little funding to deliver real change and arguably Noosa is going backwards in meeting current and future population pressures both within and from external pressures as well. Limited resources lead to a limited response and I know the difficulties. About recruiting staff as well so Noosa Council has to look at how it becomes an employer of choice so the major focus using those limited resources has been on tourism congestion. Very little being delivered for local benefit for local residents meeting their daily transport needs. We think the combination of those factors means that noosa's reputation as a unique and livable community. Is at risk for the future. So we've identified four key desired outcomes and Anne is going to speak in detail to those, but we would identify them of as development measurable outcomes for what are excellent strategies at the moment. Development, once you have measurable outcomes, then you can have development of a review process your quarterly operational plan review. Development of an additional funding stream, and Anne will speak to that. And importantly, the ten year vision for Noosa, yours is the term of Council that will set that foundation for where Noosa will be in those next 10 years. So it's a terrific opportunity, and I'll hand back to Anne now to outline the details. Thank you, Vivian. Noosa Transport Strategy 2017-2027 is a great, plan and had great foresight. We see some green shoots like the great Noosa bus, but that was initiated in 2001. The initiatives recently during the holiday period around Noosa Drive and the Hastings Street intersection had some good results, and it's great to see stephanie's been founded as the new sustainable transport officer, so we look forward to working with her. But this is only tinkering around the edges of a sustainable transport policy. As Noosa residents, we think are missing out on walking and cycling infrastructure in particular. We pay the levy, but we get very little benefit from the levy. It mainly benefits tourists. Is that fair? It's now 2025, only two years to go till 2027 when the Transport Strategy is to be actually implemented. Noosa needs bold, to Paris, brussels and other cities and smaller towns that have reduced dependence on cars, increased public transport systems and their use, and encouraged alternative transport. For example Paris had a vision in 2017 to ban diesel and petrol vehicles, have more e-buses and three times more EV charging stations. So what will Noosa look like in 2032 for our visitors from the Olympics? We want our visitors to have a truly Noosa experience. So we're looking for something bomb like big bombs. Visions, like a 50% reduction in cars in Noosa villages, to be replaced by e-mobility, bikes, scooters and people movers. We're suggesting no cars in Hastings Street, the spit, Park Road to the national park. And that people would be moved from these key tourist destinations, and where locals like to go as well, in fun people movers, on a continuous loop, taking people from those parking modes to Hastings Street, the national spit, the park national park and Noosa junction. Ironically, this was first suggested in 1993 by some of the people in this room today. Smaller e-buses throughout the Shire would be great, and that's a constant feedback that we get as Zero Emissions Noosa that the community is looking for. Integrated public transport system across all villages in the Noosa Shire, and the incentive for people to reduce their car use by having continuous fun in public transport. So how do you pay for this? We've got two suggestions for additional funding streams. Firstly, paid car by non-residents. So opening Noosa Woods, for example, to paid car parking, just like the Lions Park is today, could be introduced in the 2025 budget. If this was carried out for 10 years, we've estimated there would be multi-million dollars coming in for transport initiatives. After 10 years, it would be returned to the community, because after all, it is community space. Number plate recognition could be used, so residents don't have to pay. Trial should I be very daring and say trial paid parking could be considered Hastings Street, for example, as part of a trial to perhaps be extended later into other areas. The other revenue source is a differential transport levy for businesses. Pay, as vivien has mentioned, the same levy as households. If businesses paid. At levy based on the number of employees they have or the number of car parks they have, then that would help to increase the revenue stream. Incentives for businesses that have solar. Electric plug-in hybrids and or any bike charges could be put in place to encourage businesses to reduce the levy that they have to pay as well as all the other benefits that you get from having those mechanisms in place I'll now hand over to Jenny who's the Chair of our transport working group she's going to talk about some of the zen initiatives that we'll be doing in the first six months of the year thank you so hi I just wanted to build on what Ann and vivien have said um and as I said I'm going to mention what the zen transport action group is working on. Through our programs, and I'm new to the job, and my understanding is we've worked very closely with Council to progress this downfall of transport, and we want to keep doing that. You're probably aware of some of the projects we've had in particularly in active transport um so in the past we had a we mapped cycling hotspots and that information still exists if the Council would like to access that um and our new exciting project which was starting up soon e-bike library where residents will be able to borrow and try before they buy um e-bikes so we're hoping to promote more active transport that way and in addition to that I'm sure you're all aware of the ev expo that's on annually and we also have a team within our action group that's researching and advocating for better ev charger networks within the Shire um so to work towards also to help us work towards our thinking on transport and hopefully to also share that with Council is we um plan to hold a series of community consultations over the next six months where we can talk to community members about our vision about the priorities in the action plans and hopefully get people's enthusiasm and support along the way. So we're really happy to share any of the information about our projects and about those consultations with you. Thank you. And just to finalise we'd like to show a challenge to our Councillors. As Noosa residents we would like our Councillors to continue to show leadership in the sustainable transport place, transport space. We would like them to be future focused and daring, to be innovative, to reach our net zero community emissions target and to be a role model for biospheres about how you can live in a biosphere. For example, the 2025-26 budget, which is in the second year of this Council term, is the ideal time to implement the recommendations that we've outlined in our transport paper, which we sent to you late last week and happy to resend again. If it's got lost in your email inbox. The five recommendations we suggest would jumpstart the Transport Strategy and walking and cycling strategies. We're very happy to continue working collaboratively with Council and really urge Council to reinstate the transport reference group of a number of years ago because we think that gave really valuable community input into council's planning and progress on implementing the sustainable Transport Strategy. So thank you for your time and the opportunity to outline these issues and hopefully some possible solutions for your attention.