Late bid for trail funds

With time running out to find the last $60,000 needed to build the Gibbston River Trail, the community association behind the project has made a last-minute plea to the Queenstown Lakes District Council to give a further $15,000 towards the community project.

Over the past three years, the small Gibbston community has raised virtually all of the $1.4 million needed to build the Gibbston River Trail which would run the length of the valley through historic gold mining sites and vineyards.

Although most of the money had been raised, the whole sum was required under funding conditions before any could be used.

With a $50,000 Lotteries Commission grant expiring next week, Gibbston Community Association chairwoman Susan Stevens spoke to councillors in the public forum of the QLDC's extraordinary meeting yesterday begging for a further $15,000 to help bridge the shortfall.

"You were there with us in the beginning with $15,000 [a contribution for the initial feasibility study]. I hope you will be there with us at the end for $15,000," Ms Stevens said.

She hopes a charity fundraising auction at Millbrook Resort on Friday will cover the needed amount but is aware that the recession has affected the ability of people to contribute to such projects.

Ms Stevens said she had been told the council would consider her appeal and get back to her with a decision today.

The last week had been "nerve-racking", as the Lotteries Commission, which already had extended the association's grant until September 14, indicated last Friday that a second time extension was unlikely, she said.

"That is fair enough - they have already given us more time," Ms Stevens said.

However, a second blow came last week when the Otago Regional Council declined a request for $15,000, saying the association should have applied when the council was working on its 10-year plan.

Ms Stevens said that at the time there had not seemed to be a problem with funding.

She said the time-frame for the project might seem long to some of the funding organisations but, as a small community, trying to raise $1.4 million had been a "big ask".

Some funding which had seemed secure had not eventuated as charitable trusts tightened their belts.

One recently had declined a grant application for $180,000.

"We had been talking to them for more than a year and reduced our application from $500,000," Ms Stevens said.

• The Gibbston River Trail fundraising auction will take place at Millbrook Resort on Friday night. Tickets, which serve as a tax-deductible donation, cost $100. To buy a ticket, contact Susan Stevens at terymesu@xtra.co.nz or call her on (03) 441-8919.