Croft under threat!!!!! (merged) and merged again!

[chunder]

Sadlt these days if motorsport is to survive we will ahve to cave in to the needs of the vast MINORITY who see fit to ruin our sport,

They ahve far more power in courts and laws as they have a lot of public oinion in their favour.

We are a minority sport remember, apart from F1 noone in teh UK really has a clue about motor racing, and doesnt care. They are quite happy doing the Saturday retail park and Sunday cleaning the car.

This iswhen they see and hear bikes and cars racing about, near their kids and annoying their weekend.

These people are often well connected and will usually (if living out in the stoicks) be well off enough to afford to look into a complaint.

The only way to fight this kind of thing os to be as pro active as we can be, weekdays honestl;y should not be an issue, surely courts realise these circuits have to earn money in the week!

Restricting running time and totally ensuring noise levels is surely at least one way of helping..

And also having a police presence on roads after meetings and publicising the arrests to send a message to locals!

[Larry Carter]

Originally Posted by garcon

And frankly, talk of the circuit closing is just typical bluster from the other side (unless ridiculous compensation really is awarded, of course...)

The 'ridiculous compensation' in this case, isn't just the £150,000, there's a small matter of the £700,000 costs to pay also so not 'typical bluster' I'm afraid...

But that money aside (which could be paid by the insurance policy probably), what it does do is to pave the way FOR EVERY OTHER HOUSEHOLD IN THE VICINITY to claim such damages and that in itself, is the problem...

One other thing to note if you read the document carefully, these self same people applied for planning permission in the early days to turn this property into a HOTEL, presumebly because of the imminent location and lack of local accommodation, they were hoping to BENEFIT from the circuit!

If those plans had been passed and thse people now owned a thriving hotel on the track's doorstep, just how many EXTRA race and track days would they be clammering for!

I rest my case....

[Rod Birley]

Brands GP circuit is limited to 24 days use per year. This was actually agreed when it was built (late 1959) and was a planning permission condition, which coincided with a number of new houses being built at the same. Strangely these are close to the circuit. The Indy circuit, which has been in existance since 1926 (in various forms), is not subject to these conditions and can operate more freely. However, last year (after two years negotiation) a noise management plan was agreed and is now implemented.

[OVERSTEER]

These people who have complained need to be lined up and shot, bloody idiots!!!!

[rdjones]

There is now a follow up article up on The Eorthern Echo website:- http://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/new...ve_race_track/

[mini1400]

Originally Posted by rdjones

There is now a follow up article up on The Eorthern Echo website:- http://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/new...ve_race_track/

from the article :

Originally Posted by The Northern Echo

“How would you feel if you had racing cars revving their engines 300 yards from your house at 6.45am?”

err... when are RACE cars reving engines that early in the morning?

[Hickey]

How short-sighted and self-absorbed is that comment?! "How would I feel if I moved next to a racetrack, because a relative saught employment at the racetrack, and I heard racecars in the morning".... Not in the least bit surprised, jackass!!

And another thing, did they just pluck £150,000 compensation from their a$$? Can a few more track days really make that much difference on the value of a property, already less valuable due to its proximity to the track (this can be the only head of damages they are claiming for)? Couldnt a simple injunction suffice, "er lads, can you keep it down to two per week..."

Seriously, I hope common sense prevails here, and these chancers get a wasted costs order against them for pushing their luck and unnecessarily stirring the pot.

[PhilChicken]

We need someone to buy the house next door, donate it to the local chapter of Hells Angels. Or some other worth wile cause (a re-habilitation center for drug addicts, pedophiles, etc.)

Sorry, all joking aside, I do hope this gets laughed out of court, and seen for what it is, but stranger things have happend with our great legal system.

[JimW]

I'm afraid that the BARC may have caught a bad cold over this one.

Sadly the law is pretty clear and the response from HMG to a recent petition on the No 10 website was crystal clear in confirming that they don't intend to make any changes.

Surely they must need a bail hostel in that area.

Regards

Jim

[GORDON STREETER]

Originally Posted by PhilChicken

We need someone to buy the house next door, donate it to the local chapter of Hells Angels. Or some other worth wile cause (a re-habilitation center for drug addicts, pedophiles, etc.)

.

Or they aught to be be made to to live next door to me for a couple of weeks !!

[Derwent Motorsp]

I have commentated at Croft in the past and even the loudspeakers were monitored for sound levels.
There was a suspicion at one point that the speakers were being interfered with to stop them working.
There must be a huge amount of bitterness in the Wilson family to have created this situation.

[sunny.traveller]

Another case about noise that was there before the complainant moved in was appealed to the High Court - I found this in the Daily Telegraph online dated 24th October 2008:
A judge said that incomers who knew about the potential disturbance before they moved in had few grounds for challenging the nuisance.
That decision was upheld by Mr Justice Forbes, who dismissed an appeal from the local authority.

[Al Weyman]

Commonsense prevailed, how refreshing.

[Minicross424]

A track called Cross in Hand was shut down many years ago buy local residents and after the very last meeting, all the fans went to there houses and had "words"
Sounds a good plan.

[GORDON STREETER]

Originally Posted by Minicross424

A track called Cross in Hand was shut down many years ago by local residents and after the very last meeting, all the fans went to their houses and had "words"

Yup I was one of those,( being a driver at the time.)
PS spelling mistakes corrected (my wife said see her after school !)

[Tim Falce]

Perhaps a good idea if the track was ever forced to close would be to leave the gate open and see who takes up residence, or even better, partition the land off and sell it to the travellers, after all they'll be the only people with any money when this government has finished with us.

[dtype38]

Perhaps they should turn it back into a full time airfield and bid for expansion to international heavy status on economic grounds.... bound to get by noise regs with that one!

[midgetman]

When I was at Combe the standard response to local residents was to ask them how long it took to get to work in Chippeham every morning. Given their reply we'd say something like "Well, double or treble that with the traffic generated by the houses you could get on the circuit site if there were no racing!" and normally the discussion stopped!

[wheadon]

The lady councillor whom made the comment about race cars being ran at 6.45am wants to stick to the facts and not to her own imagination or anyone else's imagination for that matter. She is obviously sticking up for the family to gain some publicity.

The exact same happened in Carlisle where Mr Tinkler has bought the local airport and wants to make it into an internation hub and home of the Eddie Stobart group. All of a sudden local council leaders are like "oh you can't do that, there's badgers on this land"! The next week they all of a sudden found a roman burrial site there. Mr Tinkler being the quite clever business man said ok then, I'll remove my business from Carlisle, taking 7,500 jobs with me to Warrington! Councillors shat themselfes and sat down for emergency talks! When they came out of the meeting to the press's reception, they acted like they were hero's! The whole of Carlisle were laughting their heads off at them!

So I thing this stupid councillor should just shut up and let an Historic, fantastic circuit continue to showcase talent on the track, help the local ecconomy and provide jobs and entertainment for future generations.

[wheadon]

oh, these are the contact details if anyone fancies sending her an open letter?

http://www.richmondshire.gov.uk/coun...neparlour.aspx

[strider]

Originally Posted by garcon

How unique for the motorsport world to fling their arms in the air claiming injustice and oppression...

Most other circuits have to work with stringent curfews and limits of days in use - maybe Croft needs to take that on board. There are an AWFUL lot of trackdays up there these days.... which I would imagine has led to a significant increase in noise and disruption.

In fairness to Croft, I would say that the circuit is one of the best managed in the country and the staff have been meticulous in observing the noise limits discussed and agreed with the Local Council. My only adverse comment would be that they have a lot of bike track days, which I would expect to be quite noisy.

[Rod Birley]

Bike track days cause numerous complaints at Brands.

[wheadon]

http://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/new..._noise_appeal/

[GeoffH]

Croft have lost the appeal and an injunction has been granted limiting the circuit to 40 "noisy days" per year.

http://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/new..._noise_appeal/

[Al Weyman]

Oh no this really sucks, mark this day my friends as the beginning of the end of motorsport in this country, like you remember where you were when Kennedy was assasinated or Elvis died I bet you will remember this one.