Sutherland Shire Council has backpedalled over the controversial bike jumps track in Geneva Place Reserve at Engadine.
The council voted at its meeting on Monday night, June 18, to review its previous decision to retain the bike track built by local teenagers.
Council staff were asked to look for alternative sites within close proximity.
Children will be able to continue to use Geneva Place Reserve until a new location is found,
Mayor Carmelo Pesce led the retreat after meetings he and other councillors had with residents adjoining the reserve.
The residents’ complaints about the impact on the reserve and the behaviour of large groups of bike riders were overridden by the earlier decision.
They said they were not opposed to kids building tracks and having fun, but the small reserve was not the right location.
Cr Pesce initially rejected the residents’ appeals, saying, “As long as we please the majority against the minority – and the minority are always the loudest – I think we are doing the right thing”.
At Monday night’s meeting, Cr Pesce moved through a mayoral minute to review the position.
He said he had also talked with parents whose children ride in the reserve.
The outcome could deliver “a win win for everyone”, he said.
The minute, which was unanimously supported, called for a report from council staff on alternative sites, with consideration of potential impacts on nearby residents and bushland.
The report should include an engagement plan with interested stakeholders, including the young people currently using the reserve, the minute said.
Cr Diedree Steinwall, who supported the residents’ position at the previous meeting, said the council needed to make sure it did not make the same mistake in choosing an alternative site without consulting residents.
“The residents [of Geneva Place] have been very measured, thoughtful and professional” in pursuing their needs,” Cr Steinwall said.
“It has been a very stressful time for them.
“They had a reserve in front of them that was green and now they look out on brown dirt and a bike track.”