Where to from here for cycle trail?
A $9m budget blow out, allegations of council mis-management, court cases and legal access woes – where to now for the Around The Mountains Cycle Trail?
A damning report released by Deloitte slammed the Southland District Council’s management of the trail and council chief executive Steve Ruru says it may not complete the project unless it wins an Environment Court battle with Southland Fish & Game.
‘‘The council expects to complete the trail if it is granted resource consent that has conditions which are reasonable.’’
Fish & Game appealed to the Environment Court after an independent commissioner granted consents to the council for stage two of the trail because it does not want the route to go beside the Oreti River, which it has described as a ‘Mt Everest for anglers.’
If the council did not win in court, it had several options, he said.
‘‘We would have to stand back and identify the options. We have the option to appeal if points of law are in there and the other parties have the right to appeal too.’’
‘‘We would have to look at whether the terms of the consent could be managed, mitigate any problems and perhaps go for consent again, or we could just leave it the way it is.’’
Project costs rose from $8 million to $14 million, despite the council initially telling ratepayers they would only stump up $4 million for the trail, with the rest of the funding coming from the Government and grants.
Stage one of the trail, from Kingston to Mossburn, is complete and the Southland District Council says for the six months between November 2015 and April 2016, 10,831 cyclists used it, according to a track counter.
Only 22km of stage two of the trail, from Mossburn to Walter Peak is completed, with 28km still to be constructed pending the outcome of the court decision.
Ruru would not say if there would be an independent review before further steps towards completing the trail went ahead.
‘‘This is an issue that will be considered once we see the Environment Court decision and are able to determine the way forward. It will depend on the consent conditions, if we are granted consent, and the procurement approach.’’
Funding for work on the uncompleted trail also remains in question .
‘‘The net funding deficit is $9 million given the shortfall in external grant funding. Options for Council to fund this balance from reserves and loans have been developed and discussed with Council but no formal decisions can be made until we see the Environment Court decision by the court.’’
The rising project costs prompted the council to request an independent review from Deloitte, with key findings including a poorly constructed approved budget, inadequate cost monitoring, poor governance, substandard management practices and a lack of risk assessment.
Ruru said changes had been made to the way the council was handling the project at management level.