The wait for a decision on a proposal to build a multimillion-dollar cycle trail could come to an end by next week.

The Southland District Council is seeking consent to construct, use and maintain 140 kilometres of cycle trail as part of the Around the Mountain cycle trail from Walter Peak to Kingston.

A three-day resource consent hearing began in Invercargill on April 30, but was adjourned after commissioner Denis Nugent said the applicant, Southland District Council, had not provided enough information on the construction and future economic effects of the development.

In the district council's right-of-reply to submitters, a report from Rick Lowe, of MWH, said submissions received in opposition claimed drawings supplied of the proposed works were overly simplistic and not to scale, and the work was not as simplistic as stated in its original report.

However, the report says, a diversion channel was likely to result in less than a 10 per cent reduction in channel length and changes to the grade were considered to be minor. "It is not considered that there will be any significant degrading and aggrading of the [Oreti] river channel as a result of the proposed diversion," it says.

The report also rejected claims a proposed haul road would cause long-lasting damage to the landscape, and says "the proposed works are not of a complex nature and represent a standard design".

Yesterday district council resource management planner Roy Hammond said the commissioner had to make a decision on the development by July 31. However, a decision could be distributed early next week, he said.

- © Fairfax NZ News

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