After hearing claims of bias towards mountain bikers with Eastern Hill plans, an Albury councillor plans to act

Stuart Baker was speaking at a community meeting held on Sunday to address frustrations among East Albury residents about the blueprint.

A crowd of 70 to 80 came to the Eastern Hill lookout to hear speeches from residents John Pratt, Cameron Shipard and Glenda Chapman and responses from Cr Baker and his colleague David Thurley.

Ms Chapman said the engagement strategy used for the master plan was "flawed and biased" with feedback from mountain bikers given excessive weight in a survey because of a lack of wide community input.

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She said "338 committed mountain bikers have determined what we want for Eastern Hill".

Cr Baker responded by saying the response to the survey seemed "quite narrow and not representative".

"I'll be having discussions with my other councillors and staff about doing a better job of getting feedback from the broad community because it does look really, really skewed," he said.

Mr Pratt said handing over a large area of Eastern Hill to mountain bike riders is "not satisfactory".

He said 2000 generations had walked over the area and the current generation now wanted to "scar it permanently for a two-minute downhill adrenalin rush".

Badges were handed out with various messages to save the memorial bench dedicated to regular walker Elke Black, who died in 2018.

The master plan states the bench will be replaced with "new furniture and interpretive signage".

Cr Thurley said a final decision on the bench would be made by councillors not the consultant.

"If this seat is something that's important and you make the case, the council can either ask that the development be changed to still accommodate it, it be moved to a slightly different place if that's what has to happen, but no decision has been made, none at all and it won't now until at least November," he said.

Cr Thuley noted Cr Baker had successfully moved to have the consultation period on the draft plan extended from usual 28 days to 56 days and submissions would be taken until October.

Greens councillor Ashley Edwards was the other councillor at the rally, but she did not address the crowd.

Council's first sessions for direct feedback will be held this Wednesday.

From 10am to 11am and 5.30pm to 6.30pm those have registered can visit the council's offices to offer feedback, with drop-in sessions at QEII Square and the lookout next month.

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