Community responds as Burnside pump track proposal shelved indefinitely

It has plagued the leafy eastern suburbs for years, now proponents fear a radical council decision to shelve a pump track could be the end of the road.

A long-running dispute about where a kids’ pump track can coexist in the eastern suburbs has fallen flat with the council’s top dog overruling his own council.

After the City of Burnside three weeks ago voted to continue to consider different locations for the pump track, chief executive Chris Cowley on Tuesday shelved the plans.

A statement released by the council said Mr Cowley’s decision had come as a result of the “issue” becoming “highly divisive and emotive in the community”.

“There is both support and opposition for the use of the pump track in the city,” the statement read.

“The portable pump track will be temporarily placed in storage.”

Richelle Martin and Chris Cowley (rear) with children playing on the pump track. Picture: AAP/Roy VanDerVegt

Speaking to The Advertiser, Mr Cowley said finding locations to permanently install the $74,000 portable pump track after January’s meeting had proved to be “impossible”.

“The decision to remove the locations was made due to numerous objections from community members and the council members speaking on behalf of their residents,” he said.

“I remain positive that the council will agree on a number of locations to enable the pump track to be enjoyed by the younger members of our community.”

Vocal proponent for the track, Richelle Martin from group skate.east, said Mr Cowley’s line-in-the-sand decision was a “complete slap in the face to our community”.

“The use of the track, in the limited locations it has been put, has justified its success as a facility for the community,” she said.

“And if it could only make it into a large reserve like Kensington Gardens or Kensington Park, it would be even more successful.

“Why has the CEO taken such a drastic response which leaves our kids without anywhere to ride their scooters, bikes and skateboards?”

City of Burnside chief executive Chris Cowley. Picture: Supplied

The saga has been ongoing for several years and has seen members of the community at utter loggerheads over whether the pump track is viable in the affluent council area.

In recent years the track’s location has been proposed at several different areas.

The January council meeting proposed investigations into eight more sites, but Mr Cowley’s decision put paid to those plans.

The latest development is the most decisive moment in the debate and Ms Martin fears it will spell the end for the pump track.

Mr Cowley said the storage of the track would continue until a “workshop”, with council members, is held “to determine its future” before the end of the month.

The track is still set up at the council’s Bell Yett Reserve at Wattle Park and will stay there until February 27 before going into storage.