Get your skates on: petition

About 700 people have signed an online petition calling for the construction of a bike and skateboard track in Cape Woolamai.

The change.org petition follows the unauthorised creation of a BMX and motorbike track on the Cape Woolamai foreshore earlier this year, which damaged vegetation and increased erosion risk.

The petition is calling for a pump track, an asphalt circuit of rollers and banked turns for bicycles, scooters and skateboards.

“A purpose-built pump track would provide a replacement of the current popular bush tracks built in our foreshore and allow vegetation to regenerate in these areas,” the petition states.

“The pump track would provide recreational opportunities and a meeting place in the community for both children and adults.”

Signatories to the petition said it was long overdue.

“We need a space for kids, teenagers, family to exercise in a proper environment for bikes that don’t wreck our environment,” wrote Jacqui.

Naomi said: “If you are going to keep expanding housing you need to give families places to play and grow.”

Several people commented a pump track was needed in addition to skate parks.

“A pump track would be an amazing addition to the existing skate park – there only really is one decent one on the island,” Maja said.

“It would help take the load off the skate park in Cowes as it gets a little too hectic for young children in particular.”

In April Bass Coast Shire councillor Rochelle Halstead voiced her frustration at the slow pace of finding a regional skate park site, suggesting the delay has led to the destruction of the Cape Woolamai foreshore.

Cr Halstead said council meeting discussions on skate parks with the community dated back to 2015.

“Some might suggest the delay has caused the heartbreaking reality of significant damage to the Cape Woolamai foreshore where young people have taken matters into their own hands and created their own BMX track.”

At the time shire officers said an updated review of the skate strategy would be finished by May, with a proposal for a regional skate park presented to council soon after.