Push to put Rotorua on world cycling map

Rotorua's council has been encouraged to invest in the New Zealand Cycling Centre of Excellence project before the opportunity passes it by.
Members of the Home of Cycling Trust presented their case to Rotorua District councillors during the first day of annual plan hearings yesterday.
The Home of Cycling Trust is the organisation behind a joint Waikato/Bay of Plenty bid to develop a $29.5 million world-class cycling facility, including an indoor velodrome, in the region.
Rotorua would provide the mountainbiking component of the centre while an indoor velodrome and BMX track would be built near Cambridge.
The Rotorua District Council began three days of hearings for submissions to its draft annual plan for the 2011/12 financial year yesterday.
It features a 3.1 per cent average rates increase across the district, with council staff receiving 2168 submissions.
The plan sets rates, fees and charges for the coming financial year. Submissions closed on May 3.
Home of Cycling Trust project co-ordinator Tonia Cawood said the trust was asking three local councils - Rotorua, Matamata/Piako and Western Bay - to come up with $500,000 between them to help fund the project.
At the start of this month the trust was given until September to secure full funding for the project's key component, the indoor velodrome near Cambridge.
Ms Cawood said the trust had also asked both the Waikato and Bay of Plenty regional councils for funding, opening up the possibility for Rotorua ratepayers to be taxed twice for the same project. "We encourage councillors to seize this opportunity to cement Rotorua as the home of mountainbiking in New Zealand," she said.
Councillor Geoff Kenny asked whether the trust had factored in the "inevitable cost overruns projects like this tend to incur".
Ms Cawood said the trust was in the middle of its third round of independent cost/benefit analyses and was confident cost overruns would not be incurred.
The council has already allocated $500,000 in its budget for improvements, including toilet and changing facilities, at the Waipa Mill side of the forest.
She said funding had been pledged by Sport and Recreation New Zealand ($7 million), Waikato Regional Council ($6 million), Bay of Plenty Regional Council ($4 million), Waipa District Council ($1 million), The Lion Foundation ($3 million), private investors ($4 million) and they were looking for an additional $500,000 from local councils deemed to be getting the most advantage out of the project.
Annual plan deliberations continue today, concluding tomorrow afternoon.
The council has set aside three days in early June to deliberate on submissions and make changes to its draft plan with the annual plan coming into effect on June 30.