Five years for Craggy Range track to fade off Te Mata Peak

The controversial Craggy Range track could take five years to fully fade. Photo / Warren Buckland

It will take at least five years for the controversial Craggy Range track to fully disappear.

Hastings District Council is moving forward in its plans to remediate the track, lodging a resource consent application with itself on Monday.

Council expects the work will take about a month to complete, however the track won't completely disappear for a lot longer.

A landscape report by a Boffa Miskell landscape architect, included in the resource consent application, stated there would likely be temporary visual effects to the council work, especially in the first six months when biodegradable coconut matting would be in place.

The report said the track would likely be fully covered in grass within 12 months and the visual disturbance will be temporary.

The top 500m of the track has already been remediated, costing $62,000. The remaining 1335m is expected to cost $150,000.

That amount is included in the $650,000 council has spent on work associated with restoring the track, which is on privately owned land.

The next step in the resource consent process is for it to be publically notified. The application will then be heard by an independent commissioner.