The path is to be completed later this year. But due to concerns from the private school and the golf club about cyclists and walkers coming onto their property, the route will be completely fenced off when it passes through Alphington. Access to the bike trail is already blocked by a high fence running between Alphington Grammar and Darebin Creek. A similar fence will separate Latrobe Golf Club from the trail. The large fence along Alphington Grammar on the Darebin Yarra Trail. Credit:Darrian Traynor VicRoads is not providing an entry and exit point to the path although the roads authority is using public money to buy a hectare of land off Latrobe Golf Club.

Under initial plans for the path agreed by Parks Victoria in 2009 after a state planning tribunal hearing, the path was to have an exit point when it reached the golf club. Without that exit, cyclists and walkers will need to use busy Heidelberg Road to access Alphington. The path was in large part designed to help riders and pedestrians avoid that road. People crossing the Heidelberg Road bridge. Credit:Darrian Traynor Alphington resident James Thyer has campaigned for the trail since 2004 and had thought residents had won a resounding victory when it was funded in 2012. He said access to the path from Alphington was the reason locals wanted the path. "We don't think it's unreasonable to ask if there is going to be a shared pathway through our community that we might have safe access to it," he said. Local groups and Alphington Primary School are now campaigning to get access to the path.

Many children go between Ivanhoe and Alphington to get to school and if on foot or bicycle must use a narrow footpath over Heidelberg Road. "Heidelberg Road bridge is simply not safe for cyclists of any age, but particularly not kids," Mr Thyer said. Mr Thyer said he wished his 16-year-old son, Ted, did not need to regularly cross the Heidelberg Road bridge on his bike. Ted Thyer rides on the Darebin Yarra Trail. Credit:Darrian Traynor The golf club's general manager Rod Haines said it had struck an agreement with Parks Victoria in 2009 for an entry and exit point for the bike path at the boundary of the golf course.

"Now VicRoads have taken carriage of the project, we've brought it to their attention but they haven't done anything about it," he said. "They need to sort out the access track. Our main concern is everyone's safety, the trail users as well as golf club members." A VicRoads regional director, Aidan McGann, said the path provided a "safer and direct route away from busy traffic in Melbourne's north-east". He also confirmed that access from Alphington would only be possible by crossing into Ivanhoe via Heidelberg Road. VicRoads has declined repeated requests to say how much it was paying Latrobe Golf Club for land acquired for the project. Bicycle Network spokesman Garry Brennan said the state government, Yarra Council and the golf club "should be working together to make the Alphington connection a reality".