Friday, January 16, 2009

RCoW Cycle claims are off track

Source: Wangaratta Chronicle - 16 Jan 09
Report finds Wangaratta council under-funds city’s bike facilities

Written by SALLY EVANS.

THE Rural City of Wangaratta, which is hoping to become Victoria’s premier cycling destination, has been accused of under-funding bike infrastructure by the state’s peak cycling body.

A report by Bicycle Victoria claims council will spend just 91 cents for every person in the rural city on bike-related projects this financial year.

The recommended threshold by Bicycle Victoria is $5 per head, while other regional councils such as Wodonga and Bendigo will spend as much as $8.05 and $6.60 respectively.

But council’s economic development officer, Graham Nickless, rejected the findings as misleading and reaffirmed efforts to make Wangaratta the cycling tourism destination of Victoria.

"In our budget we had $20,000 for bike path maintenance and it appears they’ve taken that to be the only money we’ve spent on cycling in the rural city," he said.

"That’s substantially incorrect.

"We also have a major commitment of $25,000 to the maintenance of the rail trail and another $45,000 investment in cycle tourism.

"We are a significant investor in cycling and cycling tourism."

Mr Nickless said the figures failed to take into account a significant investment planned for the next financial year to complete the Murray to Mountains Rail Trail loop from Milawa and Oxley to Everton.

"That will be a couple of hundred thousand dollars, with the total project cost coming to $600,000," he said.

Wangaratta Bicycle User Group president, Tony Ransom, needed little convincing of council’s commitment to cycling in the rural city.

"Certainly there are some fairly good facilities in Wangaratta for cyclists," he said.

"Council has provided pretty good bike infrastructure over the years."

The study by Bicycle Victoria analysed the 2008/09 budgets for 46 councils across the state for bike-related investment.

It claims councils were consulted during the analysis to improve accuracy, but was unable to verify local expenditure with the Rural City of Wangaratta.

1 Comments:

Blogger Greg Naylor said...

Whilst the RCoW promotes a committment to cycling tourism, they have made no contribution or planning for cycling tracks / road lanes outside the urban area. In the King Valley, it was proposed, some five years ago, to extend the Rail Trail from Wangaratta to Whitfield along the route of Victoria's first narrow gauge railway line. But, nothing has happened ... it is not even on their agenda. Currently, the locals are working up a cycling track plan for Whitfield but have little hope of getting the RCoW interested.

16 January, 2009  

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

<< Home