Broken glass planted on a Blackburn park track following complaints about riders

BROKEN glass has been deliberately strewn along tracks at a popular park where children regularly play and ride their bikes.

BROKEN glass has been deliberately strewn along tracks at a popular Blackburn park where children regularly play and ride their bikes.

Worried parents are concerned a child could be seriously injured while riding their bikes on a track through the bushland around Blackburn Lake.

Police have been contacted and Whitehorse Council officers are patrolling the area at Blackburn Lake Sanctuary to prevent further planting of glass.

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The council has done a letter-drop to warn nearby residents about the glass.

But another group of residents fear the bike track and makeshift jumps are damaging the park.

The BMX track has been used for years.

A mother of a boy who regularly uses the track, who did not want to be named, told the Whitehorse Leader she and fellow parents feared for their children’s safety.

“We’re worried about our kids. Someone has deliberately broken up bottles and spread them over the track,” she said.

“(It’s) a lot of glass.”

She said the children, who live nearby and are aged from about 11 to 14 years, had been digging up dirt to make jumps and moving fallen logs around, but didn’t think they were doing any damage.

Whitehorse Council has put up signs around the track.

On two occasions the children arrived to find logs they had arranged to use as jumps had been moved, mounds they had made had been raked out and broken glass had been planted in their place.

As well as being worried for safety, the families are also worried they will be stopped using the area.

The mum said she had heard some people were trying to have bike riding there banned.

“It would be really sad,” she said.

Blackburn Lake Sanctuary Committee chair Anne Payne said the area was fenced off for local families who were using it for bike riding years ago.

She said it hadn’t been an issue until now.

The Blackburn BMX track is causing friction.

“Recently, there’s been a lot of damage to the bush,” she said.

Ms Payne said the tracks had been encroaching on the bush and the digging was exposing tree roots, which could kill the trees.

Ms Payne said the committee wanted families to be able to enjoy the track, but wanted activity there to have minimal impact on the environment.

Whitehorse general manager infrastructure Nigel Brown said the council had received complaints about “unauthorised building works and damage to vegetation” as well as noise.

He confirmed the spot was an informal BMX track on the sanctuary’s master plan, and said the council did “not see a need to change any rules or regulations at this point”.

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