QLDC to manage recreation tracks

The Queenstown Lakes District Council has decided it will take over management and maintenance of 13 recreational trails on Glencoe and Coronet Peak stations.

The decision was made at a council meeting yesterday.

After a request by public access controlling authority the QEII National Trust, the council has committed up to $10,000 a year towards maintenance of the trails to start three years after their completion.

Parks and reserves planning manager Stephen Quin told councillors there would be ‘‘no obligation to keep tracks open’’ if major repairs were needed and the council would not fit the bill if that was the case.

If costs did extend over the $10,000 threshold, costs would be supplemented using funding from ‘‘commercial events’’ related to the trails, Quin said.

Councillor Mel Gazzard assured other councillors the trails were ‘‘not high maintenance’’ so day-to-day management would be straight-forward.

The Queenstown Trails Trust would obtain resource consents as needed.

Trails to be maintained were Long Gully, Green Gate, Deep Creek to Coronet Creek and Sawpit Gully on Coronet Peak Station, and New Chum Gully, Tobin’s Drop, New Chum Ridge, Peters Way, Miners Trail and Brackens Gully on Glencoe Station.

Councillors also agreed to manage new sections of proposed cycle trails linking Queenstown and Wanaka with Central Otago.

The 50km of trail proposed, from Gibbston to the Roaring Meg and between Wanaka and Luggate, would cost the council $1000 per kilometre each year for three years from the time each section was opened. No-one opposed the recommendations.