Cycleway spending on cards

4 November 2014Waipa District Council may spend around $2.7 million on the district's cycleways over the next decade.

However, final decisions on how much will be spent - and where - will not be made until the community has had its say on spending proposals in the draft 10-Year Plan.

The draft plan will not be formally released for public comment until early 2015. But based on early feedback, it's likely to include a proposal to build a 5km, 3-metre concrete cycleway from Te Awamutu to Kihikihi as well as complete the 9km trail around the Cambridge green belt.

Potentially the Te Awamutu cycleway could be extended an extra 10km to Pirongia, but only if it was made 2-metres wide and built of an easy-riding metal surface, not concrete. Metal surfaces are cheaper to build and are already used on other trails including the Hauraki Rail Trail, Otago Rail Trail and in Cambridge.

The Council has already indicated that building a concrete cycleway all the way to Pirongia is too costly and is unlikely to happen.

Group manager service delivery Barry Bergin said the two cycleway priorities had been identified after councillors discussed various options at a workshop earlier this year.

"In an ideal world, we - and possibly many people in the community - would like to see more money spent on cycleways than is being tentatively budgeted," he said.

"Nothing's been finalised yet. But by going out with these two priorities early, we hope to get more feedback from the community so elected councillors can take that into account before finalising their proposals."

The Te Awa River Ride has also approached the council about its plans to extend the River Ride from the Avantidrome all the way to Hamilton via Mystery Creek in the next decade. Councillors must decide whether any funding for this proposal should also be tagged and were seeking community guidance on how to respond, Mr Bergin said.

In the last five years, Waipa District Council has spent around $850,000 on cycleways in the district including:

• $500,000 on the 6km cycleway from Leamington to the Mighty River Domain. The Te Awa River Ride Trust contributed $1.2 million to this project.
• $300,000 to the 4km cycleway around Lake Ngaroto, currently under construction.
• $50,000 to the Cambridge Green Belt. More than $100,000 in non-council funding was secured for this project independently.

For more information check out the Waipa cycleways information page, or fill out the online survey right now.

Media enquiries to Jeanette Tyrrell (on behalf of Council) 027 5077 599