A compromise has been reached on a new walking and cycling trail between Cromwell and Pisa Moorings - some of it will be a formed track and the remainder will be unformed.
Proposed by Sport Central and Cromwell and District Promotions, the trail route is from Cromwell's Deadman's Point bridge to the Parkburn quarry, along the shores of Lake Dunstan. The track will be on crown land and no resource consent is needed.
Public feedback was sought on the proposal and 225 submissions were received.
Thirty submitters aired their views at a hearing last month, before a panel made up of Cromwell Community Board chairman Neil Gillespie, Clutha management committee chairman Gordon Stewart, Land Information New Zealand (Linz) representative Rose Quirk and Central Otago district councillor John Lane.
The majority of the submissions were in favour of the proposed 8.5km trail.
The panel's decision, made public yesterday, was to recommend to Linz a formed track be established from Cromwell as far as Perriam Cove and then a marked public access route from Perriam Cove to the Parkburn quarry.
"As I said at the hearing, we're never going to please everyone, but so long as we please some of the people and try our hardest, that's all we can do," the panel chairman, Mr Lane, said yesterday.
"Some of the submitters were pretty opposed to the project as a whole while others were favourably disposed towards it."
The main concern of the opponents was the visual effect of a formed cycling and walking track in front of their properties.
The unformed route would be mowed and the undergrowth cleared so it did not become overgrown and it would be clearly marked so people could see what was public access to the lake and what was private property, he said.
Sport Central regional co-ordinator Bill Godsall said the recommendation was probably a reasonable compromise. He hoped work on the formed part of the track would be carried out over winter.
The track should prove popular with residents of Pisa Moorings who wanted to bike into Cromwell. A lot of people already used the route in its present form for walking or cycling, he said.
The Clutha management committee is providing $36,000 for the work, through money left over from the Clyde dam amenity fund.
The $2.5 million fund was set up by the Electricity Corporation of New Zealand to provide amenities for the communities affected by the building of the Clyde dam.
