Abuse from the public over the recent closure of two Albert Town walking and cycling tracks has taken a toll on Queenstown Lakes District Council staff, the Wanaka Community Board heard this week.
A section of the Clutha River Track, about 240m upstream of the State Highway 6 Albert Town bridge, had previously been closed to the public by the council because of safety concerns relating to land instability.
The track along the terrace above it was subsequently closed, too.
The QLDC reopened both tracks last Friday after considering an independent geotechnical report and stability assessment from GeoSolve, commissioned by the Otago Regional Council (ORC).
Some track users and residents in the area had been angered by what they perceived to be a lack of justification for the closure of the track along the upper terrace.
They said it was inconsistent and discriminatory of the council to exclude the public from the track while private residents living next to the public strip of land had continued access.
Some alleged the upper terrace track was closed because ''private interests'' had outweighed public rights.
At Tuesday's community board meeting in Wanaka, QLDC parks and operations manager Mike Weaver said discussions on the track closures had been difficult at times.
''It's been pretty hard on staff, receiving emails, abusive phone calls, things like that. It's got quite hot ... I wouldn't want to go through that again.''
Mr Weaver said the council had resisted closing the top track, ''but at the end of the day we had to succumb to pressure''.
The Otago Daily Times was unable to reach Mr Weaver this week to clarify his comments. However, QLDC operations general manager Ruth Stokes said the pressure Mr Weaver referred to had come from the two independent geotechnical assessments presented to council.
''He certainly wasn't referring to any particular individuals or private interests, it was in respect of the advice that we had.
''There were certainly differing views on how the council has approached this but we have always just acted on our independent information and made our assessments based on that and hence we have made the decision to reopen [the tracks] post our advice from the ORC.''
Mrs Stokes said Mr Weaver had visited and spoken to neighbours of the tracks on several occasions and she confirmed it had been a ''heated'' process.
''Whenever we're dealing with the community, whether it's on this or another topic, and it's of issues that are of personal significance to them, there's a lot of times that those interactions can get heated. And this was just one of those.''
Alan Cutler, one of the residents upset by the track closures, said this week it was ''obvious to most people that the closures were unreasonable, unnecessary and unjustified''.
However, he had a ''good and fruitful discussion'' with Mr Weaver this week and ''I am happy to let the matter rest''.
At Tuesday's meeting, Cr Ella Lawton asked for the entire matter to be documented so the council could learn from what had happened, a suggestion endorsed by board chairwoman Rachel Brown.
''All the communication lines need to be improved I think is the main lesson we've learnt from all of this,'' Ms Brown said.
''We will have a debrief in the New Year.''
