Bike Walk Marlborough ‘Runs Its Course’

Wednesday, 11 March 2020, 3:31 pm
Article: Chloe Ranford - Local Democracy Reporter

A walking and cycling group in Marlborough has decided to wind up after realising it "slows decision-making" at the council.

Bike Walk Marlborough Trust has come to the realisation it has "little obvious benefit to the Marlborough community", after being set up to lead the region's first walking and cycling strategy.

Trust acting chairman Rob MacLean sent a letter to the Marlborough District Council last month saying the group had voted to dissolve because they felt their job - advising on how to prioritise bike-walk projects - had become "more complex" as the networks had expanded to interact with more major roads.

"Increasingly, the trust has found itself having to defer decision-making to specialist transport planners contracted by the council or other agencies."

Bike Walk Marlborough formed in 2005, but split into an advisory group and a trust in 2009. A fulltime job was created in 2016 with Sport Tasman, but was later absorbed by the council in mid-2019, as it covered the job's funding.

Council walking and cycling co-ordinator Braden Prideaux, who held that role, said in a report the change in positions prompted trustees to review the role of the trust last December, before voting to wrap it up in late January.

Prideaux also noted the trust had only used its registered charitable trust status once in the past four years, which was for a $16,000 grant for the State Highway 6 shared path between Renwick and Conders Bend bike park.

It had also been unable to find a chair since the last one resigned in 2019.

Prideaux said dissolving the trust was an advantage to the council, as it meant less reporting for him and freed trustees to volunteer in other areas, but also a disadvantage, as it was a "potential loss of expertise" from the trustees.

But not accepting the trust's dissolution would require the council to find and recruit a new chairperson and trustees, who would then re-establish the trust.

The council approved the request to disband at an assets and services meeting, but it still had to be adopted at a full council meeting on April 2.

Councillor Michael Fitzpatrick, who had the bike-walk portfolio, said he thought the trust had "run its course as far as usefulness", now council had a fulltime walking and cycling co-ordinator.

Advisory group meetings would still be held twice a year, as these allowed opportunities for the council and other agencies to share walking and cycling-related updates, and seek feedback from the public, Prideaux's report said.

The council's walking and cycling budget would continue to be joint-developed by council staff and Marlborough Roads, who would then seek feedback from the advisory group, or a potential sub-group, if one was created in future.

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