Affected property owners along Thorpe Street and Hayes Street have been fighting tooth and nail for years to keep their land, while the council has tried multiple times to acquire the riverbank for a public path.

Earlier this year, residents of Thorpe Avenue for 13 years, Gillian and Gordon Kelly, were devastated to hear the walkway plan was back on the agenda.

At the meeting on May 27, Councillor Jamie Cregan put forward a motion that resolved to prepare a report on the acquisition of the riverfront. Residents were not made aware of the decision until weeks after the initial meeting.

Speaking for the 13 property owners, Mrs Kelly made a public plea at the most recent council meeting on Wednesday night to leave the blocks alone.

"We need you to understand the anger and heartache we've endured," Mrs Kelly pleaded.

"Tonight is honestly a call from the heart for all those who live there.

"This saga began in 1980. Every single time this has come up, owners have not known."

Mrs Kelly said it had been a "continued battering" of the land owners. The council decision was originally slated for closed session, but was moved into open session after Mrs Kelly said the decision "so severely impacts on every aspect of our lives that we've built".

Despite all councillors agreeing no part of the riverbank should be acquired to implement a continuous walking track, the debate took more than an hour to come to a conclusion.

Two motions, the first by Cr Peter Bray and the second by Cr Jamie Cregan, were lost.

It was the third motion by Cr Kenrick Winchester that was carried with a division. The outcome was that the council would proceed with costings for a walkway on the opposite side of the river, on council-owned land, with a bridge option to be looked at. The council would also take no further action regarding the walkway along the Thorpe Avenue riverbank between Glebe Park and Glenrock Drain.

A matter arising, put forward by Cr Overall, made clear that the council would take no further action on the acquisition of Thorpe Avenue properties, however other land on the open market could be acquired.

Mrs Kelly said she was delighted with the outcome, as were the other property owners.

"The best things for us was it was the whole of council who wanted it resolved," Mrs Kelly said.

"Even though a lot of them came at it from different angles, we felt they were all looking for the right outcome, even though it got messy at times."

"I think that what we're going to do is have a full file that goes back to 1980 and we can provide that to the general manager, because we've all kept our own documentation ... If that could all end up in the same place, this might be the end of it."

While the decision to take no further action was firmly agreed on, the council could not confirm a future council would not take action to acquire the land.