The Hobart City Council will tap into its emergency fund, typically reserved for covering project cost overruns, to finance the contentious Collins Street dual bike lane trial.
Seven councillors voted to allocate $170,000 from the contingency fund to keep the project moving on Monday night after the state government withdrew its financial support.
Transport Minister Eric Abetz pulled a nearly $200,000 investment last week over concerns from the community and businesses about the impact of the cycle lanes on both sides of the city street.
One the four councillors who called for the project to be scrapped, Louise Bloomfield, expressed concerns over the financial risk of drawing from the contingency fund, saying it will “take around 33.4%” from the available $500,000.
“We’re actually creating significant risk for this organisation with our contingency budget. So that concerns me quite a great deal,” she said.
Another, Louise Elliott, was critical of Lord Mayor Anna Reynolds for prematurely announcing the trial would proceed, even though the council had not yet decided where the funding would come from.
“It feels really disingenuous because the public’s been told that it’s happening, yet here we are talking about it,” Elliott said.
“Personally, I congratulate the Minister on his decision. I can see that a Liberal Government wouldn’t want the destruction of local business and the CBD on its conscience.”
Councillor John Kelly said the construction of two bike lanes is out of touch with community sentiment and business needs.
“Surely this is a clear-cut case of discrimination. The prioritisation of bike lanes for a minority group above the safety of residents from exactly the same suburb,” he said.
“The state government has read the political mood realising that there is little or no support and therefore that’s why they withdrew their funding.”
In Parliament on Tuesday, Minister Abetz said he was “disappointed” the council came to them for funding when they already “had a stash of cash in the corner”.
“They were just playing us for fools in saying that they needed our money to partner with them. They always had the money there in the first place,” he said.
“But that aside, it is up to the ratepayers of Hobart to determine whether or not they want that sort of leadership in their council.”
The trial of the dual bike lane concept on Collins Street is set to begin early next year.
