Renewed push for mountain bike track near Orange after plans put on ice

Multiple councillors have confirmed plans to bring the project back before colleagues this year to finalise a decision on its future.

It comes weeks after an application for State Significance lapsed. Orange City Council has spent about $500,000 on preliminary work to date.

"I want to see the project reinvigorated," Cr Glenn Floyd told the Central Western Daily this week.

"The popularity of the sport has had a big resurgence. It's now more popular than fishing in NSW.

"Bathurst has got the race track, Parkes has got the radio telescope ... Orange needs something to put it on the map."

Cr Steve Peterson supports construction and believes a decision on the project's future needs to be made.

"I think it's irresponsible of council to just leave it in the too-hard basket," he said.

"Last year we agreed for some more consultation ... I'd like to know what happened with that ... we need to make a decision one way or another.

"In my opinion it has a lot of economic benefit, and also I would [say] cultural and physical value as well."

The project has received pushback from some due to the potential risk of environmental harm and damage to sacred Indigenous sites.

President of the Canobolas Conservation Alliance Andrew Rawson - who has long campaigned against the track - says the recent expiry has effectively killed off any chance of development.

"There might be some counsellors who who say that they're going to put it up as an election issue ... we'll let them do it," he told the CWD.

"I think you'll find that it's highly likely the staff of Orange Council are going to say: 'It's going to be really hard.'

"They've given up on it far as the council is concerned. It's over, it's dead.

"So the only thing that can happen at this point now is for someone else to put up a another proposal and to go through the whole process again, which I don't think anyone will.

"We've been saying this all along is that you know, it's too hard and it's going to fail and it's going to be too expensive."