The appeal, made by the Society for the Promotion of an Alternative Route, is based on legal advice, society chairman Jim Barclay, of Millers Flat, said. Some issues of law needed to be addressed but he declined to comment further until he had spoken to the society's lawyer.
The Clutha Gold Trail is proposed to run from the Roxburgh dam to Lawrence. The resource consent granted to the Clutha Gold Charitable Trust by independent commissioner Denis Nugent, of Wanaka, last month, applied only to the section within the Central Otago district, from the dam to Beaumont, where the trail will follow the true left bank (east) of the Clutha River. Most of the track will be on the marginal strip next to the river.
The consent was for structures associated with the construction, operation and maintenance of a walking and cycling track, subject to 48 conditions. Mr Nugent did not grant consent for the trail itself, as the trust's application did not ask for it.
"It was the applicant's contention that the trail itself was a permitted activity and therefore did not require resource consent," Mr Nugent said in releasing his decision.
"I need not explore whether that contention is correct or not, as I would have no jurisdiction to grant consent to something that has not been applied for."
Mr Nugent rejected a request at the hearing, by Dunedin planning consultant Keith Hovell, that the application for consent be renotified. That request was based on the opinion the track itself required consent.
The 73km trail was the first in Central Otago to receive funding under the New Zealand Cycle Trail project, with a grant of $2.5 million for the 50km section from the dam to Beaumont. Government funding for the second part of the trail is under review, because of unresolved issues with affected landowners.
Trust chairman Rod Peirce, of Roxburgh, did not want to comment on the appeal.
The Environment Court confirmed it had received the appeal but could not give any indication as to when the appeal would be heard.
