A group opposed to the North East Rail Trail plans to flood the planning tribunal with between 15-20 separate appeals, after the Dorset Council approved its development application for a 26-kilometre section.
The North East Residents and Farmers Tasmania group chairperson Stuart Bryce said they were not surprised by the decision and would be appealing it to the Resource Management and Planning Appeal Tribunal.
He said he anticipated somewhere between 15-20 appeals would be lodged and legal advice had been sought.
"We anticipated this, nothing will change that bloke's mind [mayor Greg Howard]," he said.
"We will appeal against the DA decision and we have plenty of options for that certainly.
"We plan to flood it with appeals, to give them a few things to think about."
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Mr Bryce said the group had been prepared for months but still many questions remained, as 70 per cent of the municipality rejected the idea in a 2017 survey.
"What we have difficulty with is the community rejected the idea in 2017," he said.
"What will it do for Dorset? Who is going to use it?
"I rode the section between Scottsdale and Billcock Hill and it's rough as guts, no one has touched it since it opened. Road bikes won't be able to use it ... and mountain bikers won't find it challenging enough."
READ MORE: 1101 say no, planners says yes to rail trail
The council approved its DA for the bike trail from Wyena to Scottsdale on Monday. It makes up 26-kilometres of its proposed $1.5 million, 40-kilometre trail.
The remaining 14km of the track sits within the City of Launceston council area and will be subject to a separate DA anticipated to be lodged in April.
Dorset mayor Greg Howard said the council's role as a planning authority was to access it against the planning scheme.
READ MORE: Council makes its decision on rail trail DA
He said public representations against DA's could not be considered if their concern was not related to the planning scheme.
"If it complies with the planning scheme, it needs to be passed," he said.
"Other councils have had issues with this and it has led to Code of Conduct breaches."
Cr Edwina Powell was the only councillor to vote against the DA, as she said it went against the Land Use Planning and Approval Act 1993, with all others present supporting it on planning grounds.
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Isobel Cootes
Sports reporter at The Canberra Times. A Novocastrian with a passion for football (or soccer as they call it in the capital) via The Examiner and The Port Lincoln Times.
Sports reporter at The Canberra Times. A Novocastrian with a passion for football (or soccer as they call it in the capital) via The Examiner and The Port Lincoln Times.
