Farm Street residents fighting a proposed bus interchange on their street have been told their protest could result in Baypark being considered as a temporary location.

Residents challenged council's decision to install a temporary bus interchange on Farm Street, claiming the street itself is too narrow for extra traffic and that adding the interchange would be against council's own rules.

The residents have not been consulted, says spokesman Jon Jenner.

'Council's claim that they didn't have to consult on a bus stop is challengeable,” says Jon. 'Six bus stops on each side of the street are an interchange, not a bus stop.”

He also says Farm Street is a local road and cannot safely handle additional traffic volumes, which includes large numbers of intermediate and college students cycling to and from school on a stretch that does not feature a cycle track.

Residents claim that Baypark is a better location for both a temporary and a longer-term bus interchange – a notion that is supported by Bay Venues Ltd CEO Gary Dawson, who also attended the Audit, Finance and Risk Committee meeting.

'Farm Street is meant to be a local road,” says Jon. 'It is meant to be used by local residents going to and from their houses. It is already not used like that.”

Farm Street has more than 5000 vehicle movements per day, and will soon have an additional 1600 because of two extra exits council are permitting from Bayfair onto Farm Street.

'Add to that 20 buses per hour and there will be 7000 vehicles a day on Farm Street,” says Jon.

'The street is not safe as it is. It's not wide enough to cope with the traffic there now.

'We haven't seen a safety audit report. We have requested it, but we have been met by a wall of silence.”

After the meeting, he received a note saying transport committee chair Rick Curach will write to CEO Garry Poole on behalf of the mayor and councillors requesting information on the feasibility of using Baypark as a temporary interchange.

The council has requested the information from the perspectives of NZTA, BOP Regional Council and council transport staff by the end of this week.