Help Save Mallory Park...

[Makalu]

WEDNESDAY 10th July is decision day for the future of Mallory Park and the circuit is calling on all its supporters to come along to Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council to show their support and save the track from closure.



The Council is reviewing whether to make Mallory Park reduce its operations to just 92 days per year - forcing the circuit operators BARC to shut the facility as it will not be financially viable.



Mallory Park has already reduced its operations by shutting down motocross, stopping drifting and offering to change track day times and maximum number of vehicles on track. It has also ordered a noise expert to provide an independent report and recommendations on how the track can reduce noise to acceptable levels for residents - in agreement with the Council. The Council has however posted its recommendation to reduce use to 92 days per year without taking this into account.



A further independent report into the financial impact that closing the circuit will have on the local economy was also commissioned and totally ignored, the Council making its recommendations without taking into account the livelihoods of the people working with and alongside the circuit who now face financial ruin - a real human cost.



The report states that the circuit brings more than £10million revenue into the local economy and is responsible for creating145 full time jobs.



Mallory Park General Manager John Ward said: "The Council is deciding on the future of Mallory Park and if they agree to reduce the days to 92 then the circuit is finished and will shut down. The 145 jobs and £10million+ benefit to the local economy will be lost, along with a historic motor racing circuit.



"The future of the circuit is now in the hands of the HBBC Councillors. We need them to understand we are working to reduce noise and improve life for residents and are committed to being good neighbours. Shutting the circuit is not the right choice. We need as many supporters as possible to join us on the 10th and make that point - Mallory Park is an important contributor and member of the local community."



The Council Meeting is Public. It starts at 1830 in the Council Chamber (the De Montfort Suite) at the address below:



Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council

Hinckley Hub

Rugby Road

Hinckley

Leicestershire

LE10 0FR



Mallory Park, the Friendly Circuit, is situated in the heart of the midlands in Leicestershire just off the A47 between Leicester and Hinckley and easily accessible from the M1, M69 or M6. For further directions, please visit www.mallorypark.co.uk.

[coppice]

And before prejudging things too quickly can I recommend a careful read of previous threads on this topic? They show that this is not, as many jump to conclude, bloody Nimbies,but a much more nuanced problem not helped by some of the circuit's actions . Allegedly.

[andy97]

The Council is not recommending Reducing the operating days to 92 days, it is recommending that the planning permission that has been in place since the mid 1980s be applied. Sadly the circuit operators have ignored this for many years.

[JMC1]

This always makes me very angry. I do not know the full ins and outs of this action but I presume it is the usual noise complaints from local home owners. Mallory has been going since the mid 1950's and I imagine that complaints over the noise have come from home owners who have not lived close by since the 1950's.
People buy these houses close to race track where the initial purchase price would have been lower than average because of the race track and then after they have lived there for 5 years they think they can close the circuit or reduce its activities helping their home increase in price.
The back story to most of these circuit reductions in use is because greedy newcomer residents believe that their greed to increase their property value comes before a facility that has been there long before they moved to the area.
Castle Combe is always under threat for similar reasons. For many years up into the late 1990's testing at Goodwood circuit was so relaxed. If you could get 6 to 10 drivers wanting to test with 7 days notice Goodwood used to put on a test day for you. Ted would bring out the ambulance and a couple of marshals and we would go Goodwood testing.
When Lord March wanted to start the revival meeting he had to trade a practically open end test usage permit for reduced running in exchange for permission for the revival. Again this trade off was on the back of complaints from home owners living in new private housing estate that had been built in the previous ten years. Please do not answer the next question but what is wrong with this country were we bow down to minority complaints in the face of majority opposition for things like this to remain the same. Arrrrrr.

[rscott]

Jmc1 - Mallory Park is a very different situation. The circuit is operating way beyond the legal limit they agreed to and the locals are simply trying to get the agreement enforced.
Many of those locals are not newcomers, but residents who've been there 20+ years and have seen the circuit push beyond the agreed limits year after year. One of those locals came on here earlier this year and gave a very well balanced explanation of the situation.

[majortom]

Hi all

Just to put you in the picture once again without the threat of duplicating what I have stated in previous posts, apologies if I do. Mallory Park have once again asked for support to an Executive Council meeting next Wednesday night, the same situation that forced the meeting of the 6th of March to be cancelled. A new proposal was put out to residents on the 16th of May - which proposes -

339 days of usage per year - Current notice allows 261
TOTAL HOURS NOISY ACTIVITY PER YEAR = 1411 Current notice allows 664
166 NOISY DAYS/YEAR Current notice allows 92 NOISY DAYS/YEAR
52 WEEKEND NOISY DAYS/YEAR Current notice allows 40 WEEKEND NOISY DAYS/YEAR
6 NOISY WEEKEND DAYS PER 4 WEEKS Current notice allows 4 NOISY WEEKEND DAYS PER 4 WEEKS
52 WEEKDAY NOISY DAYS/YEAR Current notice allows 114 WEEKDAY NOISY DAYS/YEAR
4 TO 5 NOISY DAYS MOST WEEKS FROM Current notice allows 2/week except for 3 days 4 times/year
Mid Feb - Mid November
‘QUIET DAYS’ UNDEFINED ACOUSTICALLY Current notice QUIET DAYS SET AT 45dBa
2 NO USE DAYS PER 4-WEEK CYCLE - 26/YEAR Current notice allows 2 NO-USE DAYS/WEEK - 104/YEAR
6 DAYS UNSILENCED VEHICLES/YEAR Current notice NO UNSILENCED VEHICLES
NOISY WEEKDAYS FINISH 5.30PM Current notice NOISY WEEKDAYS FINISH 4.30PM
NO LUNCH BREAK RESPITE Current notice 30 mins (weekdays)-1 hour(weekends)


This is a substantial increase, so understandably many residents are up in arms. Mallory Park continue to breach the notice, today being a prime example. They have made NO attempt to reduce the noise impact in the village and residents no longer trust their intentions. There was a residents meeting on the 30th of May at Mallory Park where one of the BARC bosses threatened that the land would be used for a sewage farm should the track close, so the threat of a housing estate did not scare us so they came up with this.!! A little bird has told us that should the land cease to be used as a race track there is a covenant that states it has to revert back to agricultural land. Remember the statement about staff being made redundant and given 90 days notice? well this was a lie also, at the meeting they stated that this was under discussion but no one had been made redundant at that point.

Mallory Park on Facebook now have stated that

Mallory Park We are looking at other events David, we know we will lose days. What we need now is time to build a new business and not a notice that allows just four Saturdays a year and 36 Sundays. We want to survive, please help us!

As I have stated in the past this is all lies (see what the current notice allows above)and this is what they are feeding their ill informed supporters out there. Mallory Park have made NO attempt to do anything about the noise or the amount of excessive usage and the threat that they will close is unsubstantiated as residents paid for an independent accountant to sit in a meeting with BARC/HBBC officials and his conclusion was that there was no evidence to support this.

This is nothing to do with just the newcomers coming into the village, but also residents that have lived with Mallory Park for the best part of 30 years and more with no problems until BARC and their greed took over. All we want is what we have lived with for all those years this is not being a nimby just someone who wants to live in harmony with the track and have some quality of , but Mallory Park keep feeding these lies and we then become the villains. All they are interested in is profit, this statement that they have put out bears NO resemblance to the truth and as far as being good neighbors are concerned why start now they haven't cared two hoots about us before this.

[coppice]

[quote=JMC1]This always makes me very angry. I do not know the full ins and outs of this action

Here's some advice- read what happened first before getting angry and then decide if you still have grounds for anger. Much as I love racing it is an activity which isn't above the law.

[majortom]

JMC1 said:

This always makes me very angry. I do not know the full ins and outs of this action but I presume it is the usual noise complaints from local home owners. Mallory has been going since the mid 1950's and I imagine that complaints over the noise have come from home owners who have not lived close by since the 1950's.
People buy these houses close to race track where the initial purchase price would have been lower than average because of the race track and then after they have lived there for 5 years they think they can close the circuit or reduce its activities helping their home increase in price.
The back story to most of these circuit reductions in use is because greedy newcomer residents believe that their greed to increase their property value comes before a facility that has been there long before they moved to the area.
Castle Combe is always under threat for similar reasons. For many years up into the late 1990's testing at Goodwood circuit was so relaxed. If you could get 6 to 10 drivers wanting to test with 7 days notice Goodwood used to put on a test day for you. Ted would bring out the ambulance and a couple of marshals and we would go Goodwood testing.
When Lord March wanted to start the revival meeting he had to trade a practically open end test usage permit for reduced running in exchange for permission for the revival. Again this trade off was on the back of complaints from home owners living in new private housing estate that had been built in the previous ten years. Please do not answer the next question but what is wrong with this country were we bow down to minority complaints in the face of majority opposition for things like this to remain the same. Arrrrrr.

Dear JMC1 interesting to read your post but can I point out as a long term resident that It has NOTHING to do with our house prices, newcomers or anything else that Mallory Park put out there, it is about MP working within the noise abatement notice and within the law. We have only had this problem over the past few years and we are NOT in the minority but the majority - read Steve Atkinson's report on the HBBC website it will give you and everyone out there a better understanding of the situation -

[anonymous-user]

majortom said:

Mallory Park have made NO attempt to do anything about the noise or the amount of excessive usage

Not True. There is often testing Wednesday morning for cars, we used to test noisy sports cars and F1 cars there. Mallory since last year have enforced strict noise limits during these test sessions so you now don't find the noisy F1 and Sports cars running there anymore.

[majortom]

jsf said:

Not True. There is often testing Wednesday morning for cars, we used to test noisy sports cars and F1 cars there. Mallory since last year have enforced strict noise limits during these test sessions so you now don't find the noisy F1 and Sports cars running there anymore.

That's because these are not allowed under the current notice. Not out of kindness.

[Monty Zoomer]

majortom said:

Hi all

Just to put you in the picture once again without the threat of duplicating what I have stated in previous posts, apologies if I do. Mallory Park have once again asked for support to an Executive Council meeting next Wednesday night, the same situation that forced the meeting of the 6th of March to be cancelled. A new proposal was put out to residents on the 16th of May - which proposes -

339 days of usage per year - Current notice allows 261
TOTAL HOURS NOISY ACTIVITY PER YEAR = 1411 Current notice allows 664
166 NOISY DAYS/YEAR Current notice allows 92 NOISY DAYS/YEAR
52 WEEKEND NOISY DAYS/YEAR Current notice allows 40 WEEKEND NOISY DAYS/YEAR
6 NOISY WEEKEND DAYS PER 4 WEEKS Current notice allows 4 NOISY WEEKEND DAYS PER 4 WEEKS
52 WEEKDAY NOISY DAYS/YEAR Current notice allows 114 WEEKDAY NOISY DAYS/YEAR
4 TO 5 NOISY DAYS MOST WEEKS FROM Current notice allows 2/week except for 3 days 4 times/year
Mid Feb - Mid November
‘QUIET DAYS’ UNDEFINED ACOUSTICALLY Current notice QUIET DAYS SET AT 45dBa
2 NO USE DAYS PER 4-WEEK CYCLE - 26/YEAR Current notice allows 2 NO-USE DAYS/WEEK - 104/YEAR
6 DAYS UNSILENCED VEHICLES/YEAR Current notice NO UNSILENCED VEHICLES
NOISY WEEKDAYS FINISH 5.30PM Current notice NOISY WEEKDAYS FINISH 4.30PM
NO LUNCH BREAK RESPITE Current notice 30 mins (weekdays)-1 hour(weekends)


This is a substantial increase, so understandably many residents are up in arms. Mallory Park continue to breach the notice, today being a prime example. They have made NO attempt to reduce the noise impact in the village and residents no longer trust their intentions. There was a residents meeting on the 30th of May at Mallory Park where one of the BARC bosses threatened that the land would be used for a sewage farm should the track close, so the threat of a housing estate did not scare us so they came up with this.!! A little bird has told us that should the land cease to be used as a race track there is a covenant that states it has to revert back to agricultural land. Remember the statement about staff being made redundant and given 90 days notice? well this was a lie also, at the meeting they stated that this was under discussion but no one had been made redundant at that point.

Mallory Park on Facebook now have stated that

Mallory Park We are looking at other events David, we know we will lose days. What we need now is time to build a new business and not a notice that allows just four Saturdays a year and 36 Sundays. We want to survive, please help us!

As I have stated in the past this is all lies (see what the current notice allows above)and this is what they are feeding their ill informed supporters out there. Mallory Park have made NO attempt to do anything about the noise or the amount of excessive usage and the threat that they will close is unsubstantiated as residents paid for an independent accountant to sit in a meeting with BARC/HBBC officials and his conclusion was that there was no evidence to support this.

This is nothing to do with just the newcomers coming into the village, but also residents that have lived with Mallory Park for the best part of 30 years and more with no problems until BARC and their greed took over. All we want is what we have lived with for all those years this is not being a nimby just someone who wants to live in harmony with the track and have some quality of , but Mallory Park keep feeding these lies and we then become the villains. All they are interested in is profit, this statement that they have put out bears NO resemblance to the truth and as far as being good neighbors are concerned why start now they haven't cared two hoots about us before this.

Why are the council trying to interfere with them?

Why not just leave them to run the business to the best of their abilities and it'll probably work out ok.

Why would anyone care about a bit of noise? That's what you get if you're fortunate enough to live near a circuit.

If you lived near the sea would you complain about the waves??

[anonymous-user]

majortom said:

jsf said:

Not True. There is often testing Wednesday morning for cars, we used to test noisy sports cars and F1 cars there. Mallory since last year have enforced strict noise limits during these test sessions so you now don't find the noisy F1 and Sports cars running there anymore.

That's because these are not allowed under the current notice. Not out of kindness.

Where does kindness come into it?

You said they have done nothing to change the situation. I know for a fact that they have, they have stopped noisy cars testing.

[majortom]

jsf said:

Where does kindness come into it?

You said they have done nothing to change the situation. I know for a fact that they have, they have stopped noisy cars testing.

That would be another breach of the notice if they carried on, same as motocross, this was not allowed and they never had planning permission for it.They are trying to make out that have done us a favour - this is not the case your right kindness does not come into it.

[anonymous-user]

They have still changed their position on what they allow to run, so your statement that they have done nothing is not true.

Now it may be that they should never have allowed noisy cars to run in previous years under the agreement, but at least now they have been active in making a change and are enforcing the agreement with regards to noise limits during test days.

[Eric Mc]

Agreeing to obey the rules rather than break them can hardly be taken as a concession.

[anonymous-user]

I'm not saying it is. I am just illustrating that they have changed their position, so some ground has been covered and shows Tom's info is not quite the true picture. If people cant see they are making changes when they clearly are, then there is little hope for any resolution to this situation.

[majortom]

jsf said:

I'm not saying it is. I am just illustrating that they have changed their position, so some ground has been covered and shows Tom's info is not quite the true picture. If people cant see they are making changes when they clearly are, then there is little hope for any resolution to this situation.

If they had changed their position as you say, why then are they continuing to breach the notice every week? This F1 testing was stopped by HBBC not Mallory Park last year if they said that they stopped it, it is yet another lie. HBBC stopped it as it was a breach of the notice.

[majortom]

Monty Zoomer said:

Why are the council trying to interfere with them?

Why not just leave them to run the business to the best of their abilities and it'll probably work out ok.

Why would anyone care about a bit of noise? That's what you get if you're fortunate enough to live near a circuit.

If you lived near the sea would you complain about the waves??

The council are enforcing a legal notice that the track are continually breaching, in other words they are breaking the law. doubt if the wave reach in excess of 80 Db - yes we are fortunate to live near a racetrack and have done so for many years but not at this level of activity and noise - this is the point that people are missing it has changed over the past 3 years or so.

[anonymous-user]

So what do you suggest will happen if the circuit are correct and they will go out of business as a result of this action? Are you prepared for the consequences? Do you have any flexibility to enable some common ground to occur, or do you simply not believe a word they say and expect the circuit to still be able to operate? Or don't you care, do you just want the order enforced and to hell with the consequences.

I have no opinion on this as I don't know all the facts, I was putting across a point that some changes have happened, why that happened isn't so relevant to what you said earlier which was somewhat misleading.

[majortom]

jsf said:

So what do you suggest will happen if the circuit are correct and they will go out of business as a result of this action? Are you prepared for the consequences? Do you have any flexibility to enable some common ground to occur, or do you simply not believe a word they say and expect the circuit to still be able to operate? Or don't you care, do you just want the order enforced and to hell with the consequences.

I have no opinion on this as I don't know all the facts, I was putting across a point that some changes have happened, why that happened isn't so relevant to what you said earlier which was somewhat misleading.

Circuit managed very well for over 25 years that - the track needs to be better managed, a change of management perhaps ? Croft seems to cope very well.