Alcoa’s mine master plan deletes bike park

ANGLESEA’S bike park appears to be under serious threat, with the facility being left off Alcoa’s draft freehold concept master plan for the area.

Released for community feedback, this plan follows December’s draft land use plan for the site created by the Anglesea Futures project.

The master plan proposes possible future land uses for four areas of freehold land that Alcoa owns in the area, including at the former power station, within the former mine, and next to the Anglesea township.

The Anglesea Bike Park is located within one of these four areas (labelled as Area 10 in the Anglesea Futures plan), north of Wilkins and Bentleigh streets and west of the Great Ocean Road.

The bike park is absent from the master plan for that land, which proposes that it should “integrate sustainable residential housing and tourism accommodation that complements the Anglesea township”.

The bike park leases the land from Alcoa for free but its users have always feared the post-closure plans for the mine might lead to the park being bulldozed.

In a letter to this newspaper in December, the bike park’s chair of committee of management Mike Bodsworth said he was grateful for Alcoa’s support over the years, but “we just don’t think it’s fair for them to profit and the community to lose, when without rezoning that land could be acquired and conserved in perpetuity as parkland – contributing to the health, happiness and prosperity of all Anglesea’s residents and visitors”.

Alcoa site asset manager Warren Sharp said more than two years of community and stakeholder consultation had preceded the release of the plan.

“The draft plan provides an approach that is sensitive to the future environmental and economic needs of Anglesea through providing opportunities for people to be connected to the valued environmental assets on our doorstep.”

Alcoa is hosting drop-in sessions for the community to view the plan and speak to Alcoa and its master planning consultants on:

• February 11 – noon-3pm, at the Anglesea Memorial Hall
• February 12, 2.30-5.30pm, at the Anglesea Memorial Hall,
• February 15, 2.30-5.30pm, outside the Anglesea IGA supermarket.

Feedback can also be submitted before February 20 online via engage-anglesea.alcoa.com.au or via email on [email protected].