The forest trails on the western half of Rabbit Island, popular with walkers and cyclists, look set to remain open to the public.
Councillors on Thursday will be asked to adopt the Moturoa/ Rabbit Island Reserve Management Plan, which includes a proposal to not only retain public access to the tracks but expand the trails to include Barnicoat Rd and an extension of Faulkners Track.
The draft resolution to adopt the plan, due to go to the final full council meeting of the triennium, comes after a hearing panel of councillors and iwi representatives considered 275 written submissions along with the points raised by 30 submitters who also gave oral submissions on the draft Moturoa/Rabbit Island Reserve Management Plan, which also includes Rough and Bird islands.
(The Nelson Mail, Tuesday, September 20th, 2016)
The Nelson mountainbiking community is ‘‘extremely’’ frustrated by how long the council is taking to progress plans to build and upgrade tracks to cope with the sport’s growing popularity in the region.
Nelson Mountain Bike Club trail manager James Horan said key projects for 2016/17, including some that have been in the pipeline for several years, have been ‘‘road blocked’’ by the Nelson City Council.
In a newsletter to members this month, the club said it had spent ‘‘hundreds of hours’’ negotiating with the council and has ‘‘jumped through every hoop’’.
However, in the five months since the council committed $178,000 to mountain biking projects in the 2016/17 annual plan, no work has started on the ground. ‘‘This is extremely frustrating and disappointing,’’ the club said.
The projects approved by council are:
- The Codgers mountainbike track reinstatement
- Fringed Hill new mountainbike track
- Marsden Valley mountainbike track
- Strategy to consider the potential economic benefits of the mountainbiking in the region.
Council communications manager Paul Shattock said the council was working to get projects underway ‘‘as quickly as possible’’.
However, it passed a resolution that stated all works were subject to the outcomes of the Off Road Tracks and Trails Strategy. A draft of the strategy had been completed, and would be presented to the new council.
(The Nelson Mail, Wednesday, September 21st, 2016)
The Nelson City Council has assured recreational boat users that their access to the Maori Pa Rd boat ramp at Delaware Bay, north of Nelson will not be restricted.
Recreational users had raised concerns that council may close or limit boat launching and vehicle access to the estuary area, which had come to light through correspondence between its members and council staff.
These concerns were put forward at a meeting held last Friday at the Fish and Game Rooms in Richmond, following a site visit by environmental consultants five days earlier.
It is understood a resolution to the situation was expected before Labour Weekend when the council planned to to install a sign at the access point.
The estuary has been the subject of ownership claims by local Maori, with the Te Huria Matenga Wakapuaka Trust seeking freehold title of the coastal enclosure for many years. Their claim sparked debate which resulted in the Foreshore and Seabed Act in 2004 being introduced after a 1998 Maori Land Court decision granted title to the trust.
The Crown took that decision to the Court of Appeal which overturned the land court’s ruling.
A further appeal by the trust was dismissed by the Supreme Court in 2011.
(The Nelson Mail, Friday, September 23rd, 2016)
Public feedback prompted Tasman District Council to discard some suggestions for Rabbit Island.
The council confirmed the Moturoa/Rabbit Island Reserve Management Plan yesterday, which also includes Rough and Bird islands.
It comes after extensive public consultation on a draft plan that included a proposal to restrict public access to some forest trails on the western half of Rabbit Island and potentially allow the application of biosolids on up to 53 hectares of Rough Island.
Deputy mayor Tim King, who was on the hearing panel for the management plan, said it was not uncommon for people to think their submissions to TDC were a ‘‘waste of time’’ and that matters were already decided before hearings.
‘‘But I think this demonstrates that actually, we do listen to what people say.’’
(The Nelson Mail, Friday, September 23rd, 2016)
Tasman District Council hopes to secure full reimbursement from the Government for a $117,600 fix of Spooners Tunnel.
The popular addition to Tasman’s Great Taste Trail was closed in July after a routine structural inspection identified movement in a small crack at the northern entrance.
The 125-year-old former railway tunnel was added to the expanding cycle trail in April.
In a report to the final full council meeting of the triennium on yesterday, TDC chief executive Lindsay McKenzie says the repair plan involves the installation of two steel buttresses against the portal face ‘‘to hold it back and stop the slow rotation that is happening’’.
(The Nelson Mail, Friday, September 23rd, 2016)
The budget to complete Saxton Velodrome has been raised by $442,000 to $2.042 million after additional work and costs were identified.
At its final full meeting of the term on Thursday, Tasman District Council, which is to cover 37 per cent of the total cost, agreed to increase its budget for the project to a maximum of $755,540. Its earlier budget was $592,000 when the total cost of the project was tipped to be $1.6m.
Under the higher $2.042m budget, the other partners in the project – Nelson City Council (with a 43 per cent share) and Saxton Velodrome Trust (with a 20 per cent share) – face costs of $878,060 and $408,400 respectively.
In a report on the matter, community development manager Susan Edwards outlines the main reasons for the budget hike. An underpass, designed to lead the public under the main track, and ramp access required excavation work, which was not priced, she says.
TDC plans to cover its portion of the extra costs by bringing forward $62,644 allocated in the 2017-18 year and funding the difference from the carry over of the Saxton Field maintenance account.
(The Nelson Mail, Saturday, September 24th, 2016)
“Life is really simple,
but we insist on making it complicated.”
Confucius