Shire offers $500,000 to save Anglesea Bike Park

THE Surf Coast Shire has stepped up a gear in its response to the future of the Anglesea Bike Park, offering to spend half a million dollars to buy land and keep the park where it is.

Thousands of people have objected to the proposal in the Anglesea Futures plan to rezone the Alcoa-owned land in Camp Road partly occupied by the bike park for housing and tourist accommodation.

Through its Anglesea Mountain Bike Park and Trails Concept Planning Project, the shire is investigating alternate sites for the bike park and has shortlisted seven possible new locations down to three.

However, the officers’ report presented to councillors at their meeting on Tuesday states that even the best of these sites – on Crown land next to Anglesea Primary School – was “not sufficiently attractive to pursue relocation”, especially in terms of its prospects for mountain bikes, and would cost up to $1.5 million to establish, excluding the cost of land.

In response, the council resolved to write to Alcoa requesting that the land be leased to the bike park on a month-by-month basis until the rezoning was resolved, and then offer $500,000 to buy the land should Alcoa still want to go ahead.

Speaking at the meeting, Cr Margot Smith said the resolution was a milestone as it was the council’s first decision about what it might do about the bike park.

“There’s not much point relocating to a bike park if it’s not going to be as good as the one we’ve got.”

Cr Libby Coker agreed, saying the shire had looked at a number of alternate sites for a bike park, and “this is the one that holds up”.

“Council and government have made a significant investment to this site, and we should keep it if we can.”

Following the meeting, Corangamite federal member Sarah Henderson criticised the resolution, asking why the shire was not asking Alcoa to hand over the land at no cost – a request that has been frequently repeated by the bike park’s supporters.

“The $500,000 price tag is not justified and shows, once again, how badly this process is being managed,” Ms Henderson said.