Article: Do you use Noosa's $2 cab? Better speak up or lose it

[ozbob]

Sunshine Coast Daily --> Do you use Noosa's $2 cab? Better speak up or lose it

Council's general committee on Monday will debate the merits of a service which has never carried a customer from Cooroibah or Cooran and has not had a Noosaville booking in six months.

POOR patronage of the Noosa Council $2 cab service that is costing ratepayers more than $10,000 a year to prop up may not be reason enough for councillors to take it off the road.

Councillors Sandy Bolton and Frank Pardon want more information about just who uses the scheme designed to assist the elderly and disabled before they back a staff recommendation to discontinue it.

Council's general committee on Monday will debate the merits of a service which has never carried a customer from Cooroibah or Cooran and has not had a Noosaville booking in six months.

Cr Bolton wanted to know if it was the same people being transported by the service and whether they would be eligible for alternative community transport services, including those supported by the state and federal governments.

And while Cr Pardon said he understood there was a ratepayer dollar component to this issue: "I just find we're making decisions in isolation here.

"I just don't know what the impact is - whether they are disabled...what they are, what their circumstances are," he said.

"There's been no promotion of this service."

Cr Pardon said he wanted to speak to council community development officer Kylie Finigan about other options and noted her suggestion was to lower the age eligibility to 55 to increase the potential passenger base.

"She didn't talk about getting rid of it,'' he said.

[Stillwater]

The (Sunshine Coast) council stopped promoting the Council Cabs concept for Noosa about a year ago.  That was just after the people of Noosa voted in a referendum to split from the Sunshine Coast Council and reclaim their old council structure again.  The new Noosa Council came into being on 2 January 2014.

It needs a relaunch and promotion.  People don't know how to use it.  Asked to explain its operation on ABC radio this morning, Cr Frank Pardon said even he didn't know how it works.

For the record, each area of Noosa Shire has a designated Council Cabs day.  Depending on where they live, people in each area are able to book a Suncoast Cab on that suburb's day -- the cab to take them from home to a designated set of shops or nearest town centre, where they can access services, pay their bills, get their prescription from the chemist etc, and then catch the cab home -- for a $2 fare each way, $4 bucks all up.  The difference between the actual fare cost and the $2 each way is met by Noosa Council.

It is a worthwhile service in a community which has a median age 10 years above the state average.

The Council Cabs operate in areas where there a very few PT options.

[Stillwater]

Noosa Council Cabs and FlexiLink provide essential service.

https://www.noosa.qld.gov.au/flexilink