Combined funding of $40,000 has been secured for maintenance of the Queenstown Bike Park during the 2011-12 mountain-biking season, to be pooled into one pot for a collaborative approach.
The Wakatipu Trails Trust and the Queenstown Lakes District Council have each provided $20,000 towards ensuring that all trails in the park are maintained to an acceptable standard.
While the figure still does not reach the $60,000 the Queenstown Mountain Bike club was hoping for from the QLDC, trail construction and maintenance liaison Nathan Greenwood said it was "a great start".
The WTT contribution in particular was "very nice" and came the day after a discussion between all parties involved.
However, he said the club was still looking to make up the rest of money from other sources.
This year's maintenance was particularly important following a "hard winter with a lot of snowfall and a lot of debris from tree-fall", but with the growing popularity of mountain biking in the resort, incremental amounts of money would be needed.
"It would need to grow, obviously, as the hill gets busier... to help sustain the development that's going to happen over time."
Skyline is to co-ordinate all maintenance, together with a Wakatipu Trails Trust Trustee monitoring the work, using funding from Skyline, the QLDC and WTT.
The development comes on the back of increased use of the Queenstown Bike Park following last season's trial run of Skyline's gondola-assisted access, which will occur again from Saturday .
Given this, a report from QLDC district forester Briana Pringle to the community service committee says a number of parties have approached the council seeking consent to undertake mountain guiding and training in the park.
One is an application lodged by Queenstown business Outside Sports to run guided tours in the Ben Lomond Forest, looking to join sole licence holder Vertigo Bikes.
"Given the size of the park there is ample room for more than one operator to operate in the reserve," Ms Pringle said, proposing additional clauses for any licences issued to operate in the reserve.
These include clauses for the harvesting of forestry operations on the land, track closure and three maintenance options for licence fees to be charged to licence holders.
The committee will consider the proposal tomorrow morning.
