Planning for a new purpose-built cycling circuit in Hume has been put on hold because of insufficient funds and a lack of suitable locations.
Hume council’s draft criterium cycling facility feasibility study recommended that a dedicated, off-road cycling facility only be built if a suitable site could be found and if external funding could be secured.
The council will redirect $420,000 it had set aside for the facility into other capital projects for the 2015-16 and 2016-17 financial years.
Northern Cycling president Vince Sinni said he was disappointed the council had put the project on the backburner considering the growth cycling had experienced.
“We’re mindful that it’s one of many projects on their agenda and we don’t want to be critical of their process, but they really need to do something to accommodate cycling a bit more,” Sinni said.
The $25,000 draft study stated “the proposal should only be pursued further when funding becomes available”.
The estimated cost of building a criterium cycling facility – a criterium is a circuit race held on a course between 800 metres and three kilometres long – is between $3.7 million and $4 million.
The criterium circuit in Campbellfield is used by local cycling clubs for race meetings and training.
But the course, on National Boulevard, is a public road and cannot be closed to traffic, raising safety issues.
Five sites in the municipality were assessed for their suitability, but most had issues such as being too small and soil subsidence or concerns about large mobs of kangaroos.
