Ashburton council may have ditched plans to build a district-wide cycle trail, but someone else is now stepping up to take it on.

A group in Methven, Canterbury, is in the process of forming a trust to build the trail, building on the work a council-commissioned feasibility study.

The council slammed on the brakes when the feasibility report outlined an estimated $8.6 million cost to complete the trail, along with about $300,000 of annual maintenance and operational costs.

Kirstie Gilchrist, the owner of Big Als Methven, had engaged in the feasibility study and felt the cost was going to dissuade the councillors from pursuing it any further.

She was right.

The details of the councillors discussions and vote on September 17 remain publicly excluded, other than the fact they decided not to proceed with the project.

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Gilchrist and others have been working behind the scenes in recent months to formulate a plan to proceed with the trail, once the council made its decision.

With that confirmed, the Methven group is getting ready to roll with a meeting next week where they hope to sign off on a name and logo and confirm a preferred trail route, as well as have the formation of a trust finalised.

Gilchrist said more details would be available following the group's next meeting.

“It’s all moving in the right direction,” she said.

“We’ve already done a lot of work”.

She thought it was worth the “vague announcement of what we are doing” in case other groups were considering it.

The community feedback to the council decision not to proceed with the project had two main points: that it was a missed opportunity to boost tourism in the district but also that it was the right decision for the council not to fund it.

The study, compiled by the Recreation consultancy company Xyst, estimated the price tag for establishing the trail at $8.6m.

Xyst proposed three trail sections: Upper Rakaia (Rakaia-Highbank, $2.6m), Foothills (Highbank-Mt Somers, $3.4m) and Upper Ashburton (Mt Somers-Ashburton, $2.6m).

They also recommended developing the trail in stages—starting with the Foothills section, then Upper Ashburton, and finishing with Upper Rakaia.

Xyst also estimated the annual trail maintenance to be around $50,000 per year for each trail section – a total of $150,000 per year once the full U-shaped loop was completed.

By Jonathan Leask