New cycle path at foot of Te Mata Peak in pipeline

The controversial walking track up Te Mata Peak looks set to be removed about the same time a new council-funded cycleway at the foot of the peak is put in.

Craggy Range Winery has vowed to remove the walking track after opposition from iwi and others and concerns about how it was granted resource consent by Hastings District Council without notification.

The winery is looking into how it can remove the $300,000 track, built late last year, and has previously said it would remove it later this year.

Meanwhile, Hawke’s Bay Regional Council has secured land for a cycleway around the foot of the peak’s eastern face that would allow cyclists to avoid a narrow and dangerous stretch of Waimarama Rd.

The cycleway would run alongside the road between River Rd and the Craggy Range Winery (and would connect with the existing controversial walkway before it is removed).

The new track is expected to cost about $340,000 and will be completed this year.

A staff paper going before the regional council today stated that ‘‘recent controversy and confusion associated with the Craggy Range trail, which is coincidentally in the same area, has provided challenges for progressing the ... trail’’.