The Central Otago Queenstown Trails Network Trust will discuss options for part of a new cycle trail from Cromwell to Wanaka, after the section past Brittany Cove was left in limbo.
The Cromwell Community Board last week voted against a Central Otago District Council staff recommendation to allow the trail to go through an esplanade reserve at Brittany Cove, near Pisa Moorings.
The vote did not amount to declining permission for the trail to go through Brittany Cove, but by not granting permission for the trail to go through that section, the trust has been left in limbo for that section.
Brittany Cove residents had been against the trail going through the reserve, but the board also realised that a 4m walkway that was a condition of the original Brittany Cove subdivision had never been built.
If a 2.5m-wide cycle trail was built too, little of the 10m reserve would be left, board chairman Neil Gillespie said.
Board members had noted the trust would be entitled to build the cycle trail to each side of the reserve, and "leave cyclists to work out how to get through the middle themselves''. It was possible cyclists would cycle over the grass of the reserve, some said.
Others noted if the 4m walkway that was meant to be built was now built, cyclists could also choose to travel along that.
But a deputation of Brittany Cove residents at the board meeting said they did not want the trail to go along the cove at all. They favoured it going along the nearby State Highway 8 instead.
Trails trust chairman Stephen Jeffery later said the trust would now consider its options for the Brittany Cove section.
He could not say what the options were or when they would be decided, but did say New Zealand Cycle Trail guidelines did not favour cycle trails going along highways.
