SEVERAL Chittering residents walked out of the Chittering council meeting last week after council voted 5-2 to not proceed with the proposed Lower Chittering bridle trail path in its current form.

The debate over a bridle trail follows a 12-month trial of two routes across Maryville Downs and Powderbark Estate, which started in August 2024 and concluded with a community survey brought to council at the end of 2025.

Council voted 4-2 in December 2025 not to make the trial routes permanent, citing privacy and property value concerns raised by adjoining residents.

This decision was not welcomed by residents as the community survey showed that 92 per cent of respondents (236 out of 257) supported the permanency of the trail.

The shire then reviewed the Maryville Downs bridle trail route and created a revised route focused on the Marbling Brook reserve.

The revised route went through a consultation process with only the 32 adjoining landowners.

Out of the 32, four provided submissions in support of the trail and two objected to it.

Following this, the shire’s officer in charge recommended council last week to not proceed with the Lower Chittering bridle trail project because of the potential impact on adjoining landowners, and instead, consider incorporating dedicated bridle trails into future rural residential subdivisions.

Chittering resident Natalie Shabilia, who was part of the reference group formed by the shire during the trial, said during the council meeting that the group had acknowledged adjoining landowners’ privacy concerns.

“We said let’s compromise. If those sections are creating problems, remove them. Leave us with the Marbling Brook section. That trail runs along the back and bottom of properties and there’s very little visibility to houses,” she said.

“We were willing to give up large sections of the trail to reduce the impact on adjoining landowners. We asked the planning officer to put forward a recommendation to alter the trail accordingly. It was knocked back.”

During council discussion, Cr Nicholas Grayer moved an amendment asking the shire to continue looking for alternative trails within its boundaries, saying the difficulties with the current proposal should not stop council from pursuing an alternative.

Deputy president Mary Angus spoke against the substantive motion and the amendment.

“We’ve now proposed two versions of trail routes and although there have been just a few objections, the majority of feedback has been very positive and there have been no environmental issues witnessed during the trial period,” she said.

The bridle trail corridors are located on public access ways (PAWs) previously used only for emergency vehicles.

“The shire has the legal ability to allow the access ways to be used for bridle trails. Although the objecting landowners are correct in stating that the bridle trails were not there when they purchased their land, the PAWs were there as part of the land developers’ planning so the purchasers would never have had absolute privacy on that boundary,” Cr Angus said.

Cr Kylie Hughes then asked the shire’s executive manager of development services Jake Whistler how the PAWs were signposted.

“The pedestrian access ways, that’s a term that was used by the surveyors during the historical subdivision with the intent of them being emergency access ways for the public to use in the event of an emergency. And just to clarify, a portion of the secondary route around the Marbling Brook is not PAWs, so there’s not a given right that they are immediately open to the public for pedestrian access,” he said.

Cr Hughes then said that that was probably the basis of most objections.

“When those people purchased those properties, that was their expectation. (Homeowners) have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on these properties, so potentially, that is why their objections are given different weighting because they literally do live there.”

Throughout this the public gallery constantly interrupted and had to be asked to be quiet by President David Dewar.

Cr Angus then put a procedural motion to cease debate and go straight to voting.

The substantive motion, including Cr Grayer’s proposed amendments, was passed 5-2 with Cr Grayer, Cr Foulkes-Taylor, Cr Hughes, Cr Dewar and Cr Van Eeden voting in favour, while Cr Angus and Cr Curtis voted against.

Thirty-four members of the public gallery immediately left after the decision was made.

Among them was Chittering resident and riding coach Sabrina Davies.

Ms Davies said she was disappointed with the council decision.

“We’ve been forced onto the roads to ride and that’s a real safety concern because road users don’t seem to have any understanding as to how you conduct yourself around a horse when it’s on the road,” she said.

“The council has said: ‘Just ride on the roads, and if you feel it’s dangerous, just ride somewhere else.’ But we’re standing here saying, well, where do you want us to go? We don’t have anywhere safe to ride and it’s not just us that are at risk but road users as well.”

Ms Davies said she also felt resident voices were not being heard.

“What are the alternatives? What is the timeframe? Like it’s one thing for the council members to say, oh, don’t worry, we’ll look into it. But we’ve been told that they will look into it since December last year, and they have not come to us with a solution. It’s just constantly in the future.

“We’re asking questions that are not being answered. We’d like to know why they have deemed the trial unsuccessful despite a majority approval?”

Echo News contacted the Shire of Chittering for comment.