Two possible Anglesea Bike Park sites to be investigated

A PAIR of possible new homes for the Anglesea Bike Park has come to light, with the Surf Coast Shire to assess the potential of the previously uninvestigated sites.

Councillors considered a report on the latest developments about the bike park, which sits on Alcoa-owned land, at their meeting last week.

Although Alcoa has extended the lease until the end of the year, the bike park’s future in its existing location is not guaranteed, and the Surf Coast Shire offered earlier this year to buy the land if Alcoa still wanted to pursue their plan of rezoning the land for housing and tourist accommodation.

A location option analysis carried out by World Trail on behalf of the shire found the existing site on Camp Road was the best place for a bike park in Anglesea.

However, this analysis only considered Crown land, and Alcoa recently proposed that there were two options for a bike park in Anglesea on its freehold land.

The shire has re-engaged World Trail to carry out the site assessments, which will be included as an addendum to the Anglesea Bike Park Location Option Analysis Report at a future meeting of the council.

Cr Margot Smith said everyone agreed with the goal of securing a long-term future for a bike park in Anglesea “so with this new advice from Alcoa it is prudent to consider all options”.

Cr Libby Coker said there was no doubt the Anglesea Bike Park was a much-loved facility and users had invested a great deal of time and energy into the site.

“So far we’ve been unable to find a location that is as good as or better than the existing site. The consultant will assess the new sites identified by Alcoa and we’ll see where that leaves everyone.”

Anglesea Bike Park Committee secretary Kate Maffett said the committee supported a thorough investigation of alternative sites “in case council isn’t able to acquire and save the existing bike park”.

“If there are sites that weren’t included in the initial study but look promising, it makes sense to investigate them and see how they compare.”