A year after the ‘Freezeway’ made its debut at the Victoria Park oval, the popular path is coming back – but the man who originally pitched the idea said he no longer supports it.

Last winter, thousands skated on the path, and the concept went on to win international awards, but original designer, Matt Gibbs said Tuesday he no longer supports it.

“It’s pretty frustrating to see this idea stolen from me,” Gibbs said.

In a Facebook post, Gibbs said in his work with the city on his plan, he encountered what he called “dirty and complex politics”, and that there was “inconsistency, dishonesty and communication issues”.

Gibbs also said his designs were used without credit.

“To me it’s just a total door-slamming-in-the-face about this idea, which really has shone so much positive attention on the city,” Gibbs said.

A major sticking point with the project was that Gibbs’ initial proposal was for a network of skating paths to allow Edmontonians to skate through the downtown core.

City officials now say that plan isn’t possible.

“That’s where I was misled, is that there was an opportunity to grow this,” Gibbs said. “I thought after we demonstrated success of this I was misled to believe that there was a potential to move it forward.”

Mayor Don Iveson told CTV News Tuesday that he has a different perspective.

“This is not a question of the city taking someone’s business idea, this was a suggestion from a citizen to do something innovative in public space,” Iveson said.

According to the department involved in planning, a skating path network wouldn’t be feasible as it crosses intersections, and the cost was deemed to be too high.

“I think it’s a really good example of: citizen has a really neat idea [that] isn’t 100 percent practical because citizen doesn’t have all of the information, all of the perspective, city takes that, is grateful for the suggestion, people get excited about that and city finds a way to implement that,” Iveson said.

Meanwhile, officials are bringing the skating path back to Victoria Park this winter, but under a new name.

The IceWay, named to “better reflect the recreational nature of the ice surface and to honour the original intent of the ‘Freezeway’”, will be expanded at the Victoria Park oval.

Officials said the IceWay should be open, weather permitting, by early December – once the path is completed, it will be open from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily.

With files from Breanna Karstens-Smith