Each site varies. Potential options for improving the Bay Trail may have implications for the natural environment adjacent to the Bay Trail, such as pruning and/or removal of coastal vegetation. However, further investigation of the available options to improve the safety of Bay Trail users is required to identify and understand these implications. Minimising impacts on the natural environment is a key focus of any improvement proposal and will be considered as part of each site project.

Each ‘high risk’ site has been prioritised with consideration to the following factors:

Likely impact on vegetation in addressing the safety hazard

The number of Bay Trail users at a particular site

The potential cost of addressing the safety hazard

Requirement for a planning permit to implement the remedial treatment.

Sites that were identified as being less complex to deliver, while providing a significant benefit to the community were given higher priority.

Click here for the prioritised list of sites.

Council has a fixed capital investment program that is in line with the four-yearly Council Plan. Minor remedial works were carried out within the existing budget. Funding is now allocated and foreshadowed in the long term financial plan to progress the investigation and implementation of structural measures to improve the safety of shared path users along the Bay Trail.

To ensure the Bay Trail remains open these works need to occur, otherwise the risk to community and Council is too high.

Council undertook a safety audit of the Bay Trail in October 2010 that identifies safety hazards at a number of locations. Although many of the safety hazards have been addressed over the past six years, a number of ‘high risk’ items involving more complex solutions remain, such as path widening and path clearance to adjacent hazards.