\u201cStop Tauranga City Council from closing down the Pillans Rd Bike Track\u201d<\/a> petition, which has been signed by more than 230 people on Change.org. <\/p>\nMatua resident Yvette McLeod said her 12-year-old twin sons and their friends were regular users of the track.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s amazing what these kids have been doing and creating \u2026 they spend hours and hours each week down at the track, and this is devastating news for them.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur community, including our kids, are taking a stand against the closure of the track.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"\u014ct\u016bmoetai]()
\u014ct\u016bmoetai resident Russell Smith riding on the Pillans Rd Bike Track before the jumps were bulldozed. Photo \/ Russell Smith<\/p>\n
Grange Rd resident Russell Smith, 18, said he rode the track two or three times a week.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s so unfair for the council to do this without discussing their plans with the track users, especially the kids who built it and have created the jumps \u2026 It\u2019s gutting to see it being destroyed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Crowther, the \u014ct\u016bmoetai-Matua ward councillor, said the council\u2019s lack of consultation appeared to have been \u201csome sort of glitch\u201d, and he had been assured no further action would be taken until the matter was revisited this week.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t have all the answers to the council\u2019s safety concerns, but these are really cool children. I hope we can find a solution so the track can stay open.\u201d<\/p>\n
Council: \u2018We had to act quickly\u2019<\/p>\n
Alison Law, the council\u2019s head of spaces and places, said it had received two complaints from neighbouring residents about damage to the council reserve and anti-social behaviour.<\/p>\n
She said the reserve had a history of \u201cunauthorised cycle jumps\u201d, vegetation damage, excavation, and mud accumulation on footpaths and gutters.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are also aware that the police have been contacted.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter a recent site visit, it was agreed there were significant health and safety risks following damage to the reserve and adjacent footpath.\u201d<\/p>\n
The risks named by the council included:<\/p>\n
Undercutting of bank soil, creating potential instability.Vegetation clearance on a slope exposed to flooding during rainfall.A drop-off from a footpath presenting a trip and fall hazard. Risk of children having accidents on steep terrain or near road traffic.Proximity to an archaeological site.Tools and litter left on site.<\/p>\n
Law said the council should have communicated with the community earlier and it would do so in the future, but it had to \u201cact quickly\u201d due to the health and safety issues.<\/p>\n
She said the council would review the situation this week and decide the next steps.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis may include adding basic safety measures to the lower part of the site for short-term management. We\u2019ll see if there\u2019s a way to leave part of the reserve open over the summer.\u201d<\/p>\n
Law said the estimated cost of cleaning up the lower area of the reserve was around $10,000, which covered the digger work, rubbish removal and loss of vegetation.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat does not include reinstatement and replanting, and a retaining wall or similar structure may also be required on the upper section of track below Pillans Rd.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sandra Conchie<\/a> is a senior journalist at the Bay of Plenty Times and Rotorua Daily Post who has been a journalist for 25 years. She mainly covers police, court and other justice stories, as well as general news. She has been a Canon Media Awards regional\/community reporter of the year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cThen on Wednesday last week, some council contractors turned up with diggers, and in less than an hour,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":174027,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1070,17163,15124,111,43,139,69,111988,2642,530,1227,22974],"class_list":{"0":"post-174026","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-zealand","8":"tag-bike","9":"tag-closure","10":"tag-fight","11":"tag-new-zealand","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-newzealand","14":"tag-nz","15":"tag-pillans","16":"tag-rd","17":"tag-residents","18":"tag-tauranga","19":"tag-track"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174026","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=174026"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174026\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/174027"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=174026"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=174026"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=174026"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}