City to carry out works for $1.7m mountain bike trail State election promise, says it will not cost ratepayers

A $1.7 million mountain bike trail in Kalgoorlie-Boulder will come at no cost to local ratepayers, despite the City of Kalgoorlie-Boulder taking on the first phase of the project. Councillors unanimously supported the city entering into a funding agreement to carry out feasibility and planning works for the project, which was an election commitment by local member Ali Kent, at this month’s meeting. Crs Terrence Winner and Wayne Johnson, as well as deputy mayor Kirsty Dellar and mayor Glenn Wilson, all spoke during the meeting to reiterate the project would not cost ratepayers any money. Cr Winner said he was happy the city was going through “very clear due diligence” to ensure the project was sustainable and had no additional costs to the community moving forward, and Cr Johnson said the project would need to be modified, or not go ahead at all, if it exceeded the funding committed. Mr Wilson said the council was aware of other State Government grants or election promises which have “caused issues” for local governments, and this would not be the case for the city. The report to council noted the city would be responsible for identifying and evaluating potential sites, developing concept designs and cost estimations, and carrying out community consultation. As part of the preliminary investigations, city directors attended a series of meetings in Perth and conducted preliminary site visits to comparable facilities such as the Point Walter Mountain Bike Trail and Bayswater BMX and Mountain Bike Facility.