Westland mayor Helen Lash is calling for a rethink of who pays to keep the country’s popular cycle trails open.
The Westland District Council closed the historic Totara Rail Bridge on Monday, after engineers warned it could fail at any time with fatal results.
The 115-year-old bridge near Ross connects the old goldmining town with the West Coast Wilderness trail, which lures 15,000 riders a year to the region.
Mrs Lash says a replacement bridge would cost at least $4 million and the council simply cannot afford it.
“It would take a 4 per cent rate increase - just for the one bridge and we’ve got ten bridges from Ruatapu to Ross that need work.”
The closure has cut Ross out of the lucrative loop and caused consternation in the small town.
Biddy Manera, who chairs the Ross Goldfields and Heritage Centre, says the cycle trail has saved Ross, creating jobs and investment in accommodation businesses.
“We’ve done so much to revive Ross, and make it attractive to the cyclists and now people are cancelling their summer bookings - it’s hit us like a tonne of bricks.”
The West Coast trail had been a boon for the region, adding about $50 million to the economy. But it didn't directly benefit the council that was lumbered with the maintenance costs, Mrs Lash said.
"The expectation under the [former] John Key government, that set the trails up, was that councils would own them and do the maintenance, but they had to be free for users and we couldn’t charge a toll."
Had a toll been allowed - even at $5 per rider - there would be enough in the kitty by now to replace the crucial bridge, she said.
“We have these thousands who come through and use the trail and admire the beautiful scenery and it’s the poor old ratepayers who have to front up for the maintenance, and that’s cost them $1.4 million to date."
Westland ratepayers faced an average rate rise of 18 per cent this year and heaping more costs on them was out of the question, she said.
“It would have been just a 3.7 percent increase, but we had to put depreciation on our water assets back on the books after Three Waters was scrapped.”
The council’s assets’ manager, Erle Bencich, said the government did help to maintain the cycle trails, with 100% funding for storm damage available from the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE), and a contribution for other costs.
But there was no funding for the capital replacement of assets like the Totara Bridge, gifted to the council in the 1980’s by NZ Rail.
No work was done on the bridge until decking was installed for the cycle trail, masking the rust and slow deterioration that lay beneath.
“It’s been dangerous for six years, but the engineers’ latest reports left us with no choice - we were risking a Cave Creek-type tragedy,” Mr Bencich said.
If one rusty part gave way, the bridge could collapse under its own weight.
“Then if you’re on the bridge at the time, you’ve got 40 tonnes of hardwood timber trusses falling on top of you.”
This council’s sudden announcement that the bridge had to close, right on the cusp of the new visitor season, had caused an uproar in the community and left the council in a quandary, Mrs Lash said.
“There’s been some quite nasty stuff on social media, blaming council staff for this, and I would appeal to people to stop the vitriol - it’s not fair."
Reports that cycle tour operators based in Auckland and Nelson were pulling out of the Ross stretch of the trail dismayed her.
“I can understand why people are so upset ... that bridge and the cycle trail have really revived Ross and Kumara and I’ve been tearing my hair out since Friday trying to find out what our options are.”
Cycle Journeys, based in Greymouth and Hokitika, won't be pulling out.
Manager Greg Cayford said the loss of the Totara bridge was a logistical headache.
“Either we supply a driver and trailer to take riders (by road) to the other side, or we work with the Ross community somehow, to keep them employed.”
Mr Cayford said he hoped all stakeholders could meet soon and brainstorm the problem.
The Westland mayor said an innovative person could run a business barging cyclists across the Totara.
“I think people would enjoy that - crossing the river like the old timers.”
But long term, something had to change, Helen Lash believed.
“(Former Prime Minister) John Key started this and it was a good idea but we have to start getting smarter as a country.
“We need to talk structure and affordability in everything we do because we can’t keep doing this to our regions and loading up the ratepayers.”
- By Lois Williams
Local Democracy Reporter
