A popular walking and mountain biking track in Christchurch is still closed a year after the Port Hills fires, and users fear the fires are being used as an excuse to permanently block access.
Kennedy's Bush Track. Photo: RNZ / Rachel Graham
The Kennedy's Bush Track leads up from the suburb of Halswell to the top of the Port Hills and has been well used by mountain bikers and walkers.
The track crosses through private and council land, mostly along a legal unformed road, which winds up the hill.
The track used to cover 5.3km but now only the first 700m are open, with the rest shut off due to health and safety concerns.
Christchurch City Council said the private landowner had to clear the trees on their land, and until that work was done the track must remain closed.
The track was expected to be reopened on 31 December, but the council gave the landowner an extension until 31 March.
Chrys Horn was one of the people who set up the Kennedy's Bush Track Network Facebook, which now has over 500 members.
She was amazed at how quickly the group grew, saying it showed how important the track was to people.
"I often walk up there and down to Governor's Bay and back again. You can walk to Lyttelton from Halswell very easily. It gives you access to all the tracks and the crater rim and round to Mt Herbert as well," Ms Horn said.
Other tracks affected by the Port Hills fires, such as Victoria Park and Worsley Spur had reopened, but she said she feared there was no urgency to get Kennedy's Bush Track open.
"It is clearly not a priority," she said.
"The harvesting of the trees seems to have taken a long of time to get started, and they are starting at the bottom, and the track is at the top so we have to wait until they are all cleared to get access."
No hidden agenda
Halswell ward councillor Anne Galloway said she understood the interest in the track's future.
"There doesn't need to be any concern from residents that there is a hidden agenda of any description. I've talked with land owners and been reassured by them that they are very keen for it to open.
"Unfortunately it just seems to be a combination of weather issues, safety issues, and a real concern that the track is safe for people," Ms Galloway said.
Christchurch City Council manager of the Christchurch Transport Operation, Ryan Cooney, said it had no concerns about the speed of the tree removal.
He was confident the track would be open again by March 31.
"They are making progress up there now. There are trees being cleared. Just noting there is 110 hectares of trees that need to be cleared, and the track passes through upper edge of some of that area. So they need to work their way through in a logical and economic method to clear the trees," Mr Cooney said.
The landowner, the trustees of the estate of Helen Graham, released a statement via its lawyer, saying its intention was and had always been to re-open the track to the public once it was safe to do so.
A substantial part of the forest that the track runs alongside and through was burnt in the Port Hills fires, the statement said.
"Since the fires, the landowners and their contractors have been in the process of removing the remaining trees (both damaged and undamaged), to make the track safe for public use.
"This process has seen delays in gaining the required resource consents and the process itself is dependent on the weather, as work must cease in any significant rainfall to prevent sediment reaching the Hoon Hay creek."
The statement said the process to remove the trees and safely reopen the track was in full swing and it was hoped that it could be completed within a reasonable timeframe, depending on the weather.