Husband and daughter speak out on plan to replace bench on Albury's Eastern Hill that they paid for

Allan Black and Lauren Black were shocked to learn a council blueprint for Eastern Hill states the seat honouring Elke Black should be replaced "with new furniture and interpretive signage".

The bench overlooks the Kiewa Valley and was installed after Mrs Black died on Easter Sunday 2018 when she fainted and drowned in a pool at her East Albury home.

Each day for decades, Mrs Black walked with various rescue dogs across the Eastern Hill ridgeline and down to the Murray River and then returned to her abode.

"She liked the serenity, being able to feel free, the fresh air, the sunrises, seeing the native wildlife and meeting other people with their dogs," Ms Black said.

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The removal of the bench is part of a draft Eastern Hill master plan which has stirred up concerns in East Albury and Doctors Point with a Facebook group created and a community meeting to be held on Sunday.

Ms Black said it was only after a post by the Facebook group stating 'Save Elke's Seat' that she learned of the bench's bleak fate.

"We were pretty upset that the people who have done the plan have essentially thought 'there's a chair and we're going to replace it with something new', rather than do a proper scope of what's needed," she said.

"Based on the comments on social media, mum's experience represents why people love this reserve and we didn't realise that until this happened."

Mr Black wants "the place retained as it is because it's losing its integrity."

He has no doubt his wife would be fired up over the looming changes.

"She wouldn't be happy at all, she would be doing something about it," Mr Black said.

"She loved nature, she loved coming up here.

"She would be like a suffragette, she would have been chaining herself to the seat, even if it didn't have her name on it."

The Blacks will be at Sunday's meeting and also plan to attend a council feedback session.

East Albury resident Jayne McKenzie, who has helped organise Sunday's gathering, said it was designed to increase knowledge of the changes which include mountain bike tracks, a revamped Eastern Hill lookout and roundabout in East Street.

"It's for people who use the hill who have had no say and don't know about the changes," Mrs McKenzie said.

Residents are upset the council did not letter drop nearby areas as part of consulting for the draft plan.

The meeting is at 3.30pm on Sunday at the lookout.

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