Feelings ran hot on Farm Street at Bayfair this morning.

It was chaotic as residents waved placards in protest at plans to build a new bus interchange in a neighbourhood street behind the Bayfair shopping mall.

There was yelling and tooting, and police moved in when bus drivers complained they couldn't pass.

And on a legal front, protest organiser Jon Jenner says they would hold elected councillors and council officers accountable should anyone die as a result of the development which will bring an additional 100 buses to the suburban street every day.

'No to bus change on Farm Street,” says one placard, 'No more buses,” says another and 'this is not a highway” said yet another. It was a small protest – just 25 placard waves – but feelings were charged.

'A small price to pay for progress you say?” says Jon.

'Are you talking a small price to pay being a life, the life of a school child? That's a considerable price in my mind.”

'And no, this is not nimby-ism,” says Jon, himself a Farm Street resident.

'The recommendation we made to council was not to dump this on anyone and in any local street. A bus interchange does not belong on a local road and this is a local road.

The interchange is being moved from the front entrance of the mall because of an expansion upgrade. A temporary bus stop and two new pedestrian crossings will be built outside the Bayfair Shopping Centre precinct on Farm Street.

'The council needs to give people a safe place to get on and off the bus when that happens,” says ward councillor Steve Morris.

The work will take about a month to complete and will involve some lane closures and traffic management.

Jon says the bus interchange belongs either on Bayfair Mall property or at Baypark.

Tauranga City Council has said no to the Baypark option because of cost. Jon says although Bayfair Mall wants the bus interchange to deliver people to its front door, it doesn't want the interchange on its property taking up parking spaces.

'It (the shopping centre) doesn't seem to want to make any concessions.”

And the protestors are concerned the temporary Farm Street interchange will become a permanent facility, just down the road when the mall extensions are completed.

'So the council spend a lot of money building a temporary exchange and then knock it down and build a new one 100 metres down the road. Now that's a good use of ratepayer money.”

The protestors claim the council is ignoring its own professional advice which tells them the interchange is not safe, let alone with an added 100 buses a day.

'Farm Street is used by masses of schoolkids at Mount Intermediate and Mount College. It is not safe as it is.”

The group suggested to council that as a bare minimum, the speed limit on Farm Street should drop from 50km/h to 30km/h.

'But the council won't even do that,” says Jon.

It was a small but vocal group of protestors in Farm Street this morning.

'This was a spontaneous protest,” says Jon.

He says they only got the news the project would proceed this morning.

'Helluva lot of people actually involved - this is a weekday morning and people have responsibilities, they have to go to work.”

But not before they made their message clear to the council, to the Bayfair Mall and police.

'There's a legal challenge underway. This is not going away,” says Jon.

The proposed alternative bus exchange at Baypark is not happening because there are several issues, says Steve Morris.

Most of the 80,000 people boarding buses at Bayfair in 2017 originated their bus trip at Bayfair. Only 16 per cent of the passenger numbers were transfers between bus services.

Bayfair is the single largest destination in the region for bus passengers apart from the Tauranga CBD, so any changes to operations in this area need to be carefully considered.

Currently four services operate through Bayfair: Routes 30, 33, 36 and 2. These services arrive at Bayfair on a combination of roads including Grenada Street, Gloucester Street, Links Ave, and SH2 (Maunganui Road). The services directly Pāpāmoa – Bayfair –Mount Maunganui – Tauranga CBD – Windermere Campus – Tauranga Hospital.

Given the strong demand for trips to and from Bayfair there will still need to be a number of services passing Bayfair to provide capacity during peak periods and access at off-peak periods.

These would include Route 30, 33 and 2. With the change in interchange location some of these services could run more directly between Mount Maunganui/CBD and Bayfair utilising SH2, however most services would still operate similar to existing routes past Bayfair to provide coverage to local residents.”

Moving services to Baypark to accommodate interchanges will add about $450,000 to annual operating costs.

The figure may be able to be reduced by about 20 per cent through more detailed planning and by reducing service coverage areas, says Steve.

'The cost is largely related to the limited permeability across SH2 and into the residential areas of Pāpāmoa which require services to make large detours prior and after accessing Baypark,” says Steve.

'These detours compound costs due to high levels of congestion and construction works in the vicinity of Baypark.

And the regional council has changed bus providers, putting it in a poor bargaining position with the current operator Go Bus. At least four more buses would be required and it's considered unlikely Go Bus will invest in them.

Also, diverting services to Baypark will add about 10 minutes to most bus trips, except for passengers on Route 36 (Maungatapu, Bayfair and Papamoa) who would see a six-minute time saving.

The overall impact of the increased travel time will reduce patronage which will compound congestion issue already being experienced in the area.

'The need for many passengers to transfer between services at Baypark, as opposed to traveling directly to Bayfair will add both inconvenience and time to their trip,” says Steve.

Even a well-coordinated transfer between services typically adds five minutes to journey times.

'The current network is not well-coordinated or reliable, meaning that connections will take much longer than five minutes and there is a high probability that even well-planned connections will be missed due to delays caused by congestion,” says Steve.

On weekends, when services are much less frequent, passengers who miss a connection could be stranded for up to an hour while waiting a service to Bayfair.

Baypark also has safety issues in its present form, being poorly lit and a long way from other residences or businesses.