Ashburton’s bike skills park hits speed bump

Nicole Mathewson Reporter from The Press

By local democracy reporter Jonathan Leask:

Ashburton’s bike skills park project has the wobbles, with a $400,000 hill to climb.

A funding grant application for the detailed design of the learn-to-ride cycling facility in the Ashburton Domain was denied and delayed the progress of the project.

Ashburton deputy mayor Liz McMillan is on the project’s working group that is looking at forming a trust so that the group can apply for its own funding.

“We applied for quite a bit of funding but we didn’t get it so now we are looking at options,” McMillan said.

The project needs $400,000 to push ahead.

“It’s not a small amount of money and the longer we wait the more it is going to go up probably,” McMillan said.

The Ashburton District Council approved the Ashburton Domain as the location last year and then approved the initial concept plans in May.

The design and construction of the bike skills park will be paid for by the local service clubs and community organisations driving the project.

A bike skills park working group, a combination of clubs, organisations, and council representatives, had produced the initial concept design.

They have already received resource consent and need to complete the detailed design – which will include a second cost estimate, before going out for tender.

“The next step is getting the funding for the detailed design and to get a project manager on board to steer the project.

“We have a good plan in place. It’s just the funding going forward,” McMillan said.

“It’s just how it is at the moment, there are a lot of people looking for funding and a lot of projects out there.”

The “group of groups” are going to form a trust to make it an easier process to apply for funding grants McMillan said.

Councillor Tony Todd is also on the working group and is helping start the process of forming a trust that he had estimated will take about two months and then they can start applying to the various charity grants.

There is no timeline attached to the project as yet while they look to secure funding McMillan said.

“We want to get all the funding before we start building it.”

The bike skills park in the Ashburton domain is for the community to learn cycling skills and road safety.

It will have a flat street circuit, a 3m wide asphalt ‘road’ with line marking to enable two-way traffic, that will feature a range of road signs and crossings reflecting common Ashburton traffic features – including a rail crossing.

The street circuit connects to the existing pump track that will be reformed, with, an elevated lookout and seating area.

There will also be an off-road woodland trail circuit, located around the existing trees, connecting to the street circuit over a cattlestop.