Belle Vue Stadium - Under Threat

[Stephen H]

With the recent loss of Wimbledon, Arena Essex, Coventry and the 1.5 mile oval at Rockingham, Oval Racing in the UK is losing some of its icon venues, with long histories. While the fight for Coventry continues, the last Stadium and Oval Track to come under threat is Belle Vue, as planning permission has be submitted to build houses on the site. Once again, those fighting to save the Stadium, face an uphill struggle, and include some of those that put so much effort into trying to save Wimbledon.

Stage one, is a petition, to show the planning department just how many people want the Stadium retained as a Sporting Venue.

Sadly, there is a counter petition asking for the stadium to be demolished, currently with 14814 Supporters. Those trying save the Motorsport Venue, really do need every Motor Sport Enthusiast to sign to save Belle Vue, as at the moment they aren't half way to that total with 6521 signatures. So please go to www.change.org, search for Belle Vue, and you will find 2 petitions trying to save the venue.

[Aysedasi]

I'm onto it..... It was watching BRISCA there in 1984 that got me back interested in motor racing....


PS The 'Demolish Belle Vue' petition is scandal-mongering at it's worst!!!

[silver bullet]

The sad thing the petition calling for its demolition is based on supposed animal cruelty from the anti greyhound racing lobby.
Belle Vue is a brilliant venue with great facilities, easy access, and good parking.

Here is a link that takes you directly to the save petition.
https://www.change.org/p/save-manche...ium-sign-today

[Stephen H]

Originally Posted by silver bullet

The sad thing the petition calling for its demolition is based on supposed animal cruelty from the anti greyhound racing lobby.
Belle Vue is a brilliant venue with great facilities, easy access, and good parking.

Here is a link that takes you directly to the save petition.
https://www.change.org/p/save-manche...ium-sign-today

Thanks, Silver Bullet, I wasn't sure if it was okay to post a direct link. So Thank you for doing so.

[chunder]

The Belle Vue that people went to in the 80's is not the same venue, that was New Road, this is Hyde Road I think.

This is the old dog track and speedway track that replaced it when it became a car auction site. Much smaller, awful viewing as it has flat grass banks, but provides good racing due to the layout.

There is NO chance of it being stopped, surrounded by houses and industry. It is a good venue, but I will not be sad to see it go because the promoter who runs it has all the bank holiday F1 stock car meetings tied up there, and never has them anywhere else!

Saying that, he will keep them and run them at his other venues like Sheffield and Stoke.

Being serious, inner city venues and ones near populated places are not likely to stay open, they don't make enough money to warrant staying there, the land is usually worth millions to developers and the people running them can rarely find a good reason to stop them being sold when millions are danged in front of them.

the sport is moving east, has been for years, where there is more space, less demand on it and less people.

I think BV is owned by the greyhound racing group or something, so it will certainly be sold.

[Stephen H]

I understand what you are saying Chunder, but I think efforts have to be made to at least give motorsport a voice, doesn't take much time to sign a petition. Even if just to reward those spending there own time trying to raise awareness. I know one of the "save group" is putting in 12hrs a day. At the very least, their efforts will raise awareness of the sport. My fear is that we will start losing some of the out of town tracks too if those in towns and cities close without objections.

[chunder]

I think being brutally honest in town tracks are not worth saving.

Think about, it, any government is under immense pressure to build affordable housing, due to their incompetence for decades of mass immigration among other things, so any space in built up areas that is not housing is worth far more than some fields near an industrial estate, it simply is not viable to have venues like this in cities.

For some reason we can accept football stadiums, rugby grounds, crickets grounds as city centre stadia, but not motorsport venues.

That is NEVER going to change

[Aysedasi]

But, taking Stephen's point, there's no harm in trying. If we all sit back and accept it then what's likely simply becomes inevitable....

[chunder]

I know what you mean Ayes, sadly I have experienced this with several tracks lately.

And some of them like Long Eaton were sat vacant for nearly a decade before being used for anything, it is a waste, but if the owners want to sell and in this case, they do, there is nothing you can do

[Stephen H]

Originally Posted by chunder

I think being brutally honest in town tracks are not worth saving.

Think about, it, any government is under immense pressure to build affordable housing, due to their incompetence for decades of mass immigration among other things, so any space in built up areas that is not housing is worth far more than some fields near an industrial estate, it simply is not viable to have venues like this in cities.

For some reason we can accept football stadiums, rugby grounds, crickets grounds as city centre stadia, but not motorsport venues.

That is NEVER going to change

Things go round in circles, cinemas, in Tunbridge Wells, when one chain took over the other 20 plus years ago they closed the one in the town, and kept the one on the industrial estate, the are pro's and cons for both locations, but now in Eastbourne the reverse is happening, the one on the industrial estate with free easy parking is closing as the chain opens a new one in the town, with limited pay for parking.

There does seem to be a slow switch back, to bringing shopping and activities from out of town back into towns.

So I have to live in the hope that people will soon start seeing stadiums as assets to Towns rather than development opportunities.

Town and Cities are more than just houses, there need to be activities, there needs to be things for the residents to do. Okay Stadiums take space, and pits and public parking, but this is short oval motorsport. Its the only type of motorsport that will fit in a town or city.

I popped up to the Winter Lights at Canary Wharf, and was amazed by the amount of people that turned out on cold wet winter nights. There is still a strong desire for people in Towns to go out and watch something real life. Though I known given the state of most venues, toilets, speakers, scoreboards, seating, there would need to be huge improvements to start bringing new crowds in.

[chunder]

I think it depends on the business

There is an obvious reason cinemas went out of town, they were often in huge buildings that cost a fortune to run, they are now more sort of eccentric places, often with options of having tables, beers etc, so that clientele is in town, been going on in London for a long time, sort of re-inventing cinemas.

People want to feel like it's a night out on the town, not a trip to an industrial estate. Shopping fair enough, but not cinema or bowling etc. Most near me are on the edge of town, not IN town. Tunbridge Wells is a very well to do place, which probably explains the decision, it would never happen in say Stevenage or Basildon lol

This will NOT happen to race tracks, they are in no way glamorous or niche, they are mucky, noisy, residents hate them.

Back in the day we had ice rinks, roller rinks, dog and speedway tracks, they all stopped coz they lost money.

Image change is what is needed, as with cinema.

[Alfisti]

I've added my name to both petitions to save it and prodded a few others to do so; it may well be a foregone conclusion that corrupt council officials will allow greedy housing builders to cover yet more of this country in houses.

However it's worth standing up to be counted, trying to save something is a worthwhile activity. Yes it may just be dog and stock car racing but it provides entertainment, enjoyment and employment.

Sadly the human race is too great in number and a nasty disease or large scale war is going to be the only thing that stops our greedy self serving species from turning this planet into a barren rock.

[Stephen H]

I`m sure the organisers of the save campaign appreciate every signature. Councils are in a difficult position, they have to have good reasons to turn any development down. Most are struggling with ever reducing budgets, so if they refused permission, they could get draw into an appeal with ever increasing legal costs.

The anti Grey Hound Racing lobby, is well organised and has over double the number of signatures asking for the stadium to go, compared to those trying to save the stadium have. No idea if it will be an officer decision or a planning committee. But who is going to side with 7000, signatures against 15000. I would like to think their are more than 7000 motor racing enthusiasts out there? How many have already lost their local tracks? Coventry, Wimbledon, Arena Essex, Newton Abbot, Wisbech, St.Austell. In town or out in the country, tracks are under threat, there are rumours about others not in towns being under threat. Most of us travel many miles, stand out in all weathers, to watch or marshal or compete or mechanic, and spend more money than we probably care to admit pursuing our passion of motorsport. So a couple of minutes signing a petition to at least show our sport has a voice, and at least try to help those whose local track is under threat doesn't seem much effort. There was no opportunity to have a say to object to the loss of Arena Essex or Rockingham, and many others, so when there is a chance to show support, many feeling is, lets not waste it.

[Stephen H]

There are just days left to show your support for Motorsport. With Wimbledon, Coventry, Arena Essex and Rockingham all lost, grass roots Motorsport is losing some of its Icon Venues. The latter two disappeared without anyone having a say. At least there is a Petition, that takes just a moment to sign, to try to Save Stock Car Racing in Manchester. The petition to demolish the Stadium has almost 15,000 signatures, currently the one Supporting Motor Racing has just over 7500, so they are half way there...........but time is running out to catch up.

[Stephen H]

There are now JUST 7 DAYS to sign the Save Belle Vue Petition