"3. Council give in principle support for
further investigation into the use of the Lakeside facility for the
following purposes:-
(I) Driver and Rider Training
(II) Non-Offensive Commercial Uses
(III) Appropriate Sporting Activities
(IV) Motor Car Activities at Club Level
(V) Motor Bike Activities at a Club Level
(VI) Passive Recreation; and
(VII) Local Government Purposes.
4. The Enterprise Director and Legal Officer
make due investigations and prepare a report as to examples of
activities within the categories specified in recommendation 3.
(Above)
5. Council advise those parties who have
submitted a particular interest in Lakeside of Council’s decision in
this matter as detailed in recommendations 3 and 4 above."
7 March, 2002 MP 02/0665-7
"Council authorises the use of the Lakeside Motor
Racing facility for low level motor sport activities subject to the Shire
Solicitor’s advice that Council is adequately protected by public liability
insurance policies either held by Council or the club or business permitted
to use the facility."
Whilst not advertised, until the Heritage listing
happened, Lakeside was being used for a range of motorised and non-motorised
activities.
17/19 July, 2002 MP 02/2049
"Council agrees that the overriding objective for any
use of the Lakeside land is protection of water quality for the Shire.
Council note that committee, in principle, supports
option 3, but without the potential for subdivision and notes that further
investigation is required in relation to Environmental and Financial aspects
of this option.
That the Director Strategic and Commercial Services be
authorised to carry out further Environmental and Financial investigations
as to the viability of option 3 and report back to a future Strategic and
Commercial Committee meeting."
Option 3 = Use the track for a multi-sport facility,
car and motorcycle club use (street registered vehicles), triathlon and
cycling clubs, roller blade clubs, go kart clubs and driver training, with
an option for 3 x 2ha allotments for residential use.
This reinforces the Council support for
motorised and non-motorised activities at Lakeside.
It also reinforces that Council was not
interested in cutting up Lakeside for residential land there was a rumor at that
time that Council was going to bulldoze the track and turn the land into
residential.
When the Council first acquired Lakeside,
the issue of converting the vacant land to residential was raised and
immediately rejected for a whole range of reasons. This is confirmed by
Council’s official resolution of 17/19 July 2002 (as outlined above).
The Lakeside land is in the water supply
catchment and outside the sewerage system area. Council is not interested in
allowing any further unsewered development in the water catchment.
As well, in the Town Plan, the minimum lot
size would be 16 hectare or 40 acres. You would be lucky to get three or four
lots. The cost of fixing up the land to sell would probably be more than the
return from selling the lots.
The official support for the use of
Lakeside for a range of motorised activities including driver education also
shows that Council was not interested in destroying the track.
13 December, 2002 MP 02/3679
1. "Committee (S&C) recommends to Council that it
does not reopen the track for vehicle racing or club events in view of-
(A) The significant initial cost to reopen
Lakeside as a functioning and safe track;
(B) The lower usage occasioned by restricting
vehicles to street level noise emissions;
(C) The high financial risk to Council in
operating the track;
(D) The long-term cost to Council in operating the
track;
(E) The opportunity to use the land for other
community-orientated uses.
2. That the Director Strategic & Commercial
Service investigate and report to committee (S&C) the options for using
Lakeside as a Driver Training facility and/or uses by non-motorised
activities, ensuring that water quality is not compromised.
3. That the Director Strategic &
Commercial Services investigate opportunities for further protection of
the water supply and revegetation of the undeveloped portion of
Lakeside.
3 June, 2003 MP 03/1601
1. Council advise Deacons Solicitors to lodge an
appeal against the Heritage Council decision to permanently list
Lakeside International Raceway in the Heritage Register.
2. Council resolve to hold over considering the
Expression of Interest until the appeal against the Heritage Council
decision is resolved in the Planning and Environment Court.
6 May, 2003 MP 03/1254
1. That the Director Strategic & Commercial
Services report to a future committee meeting in relation to the
implications of the Heritage listing and caveat on the expression of
interest for the future use of Lakeside.
2. That when the Expression of Interest document
for future use of Lakeside is submitted to Council for approval, the
matter of club level racing and events be further considered, along with
all associated motorised and non-motorised activities.
EFFECT OF RECOMMENDATIONS:
What does all that mean??
The last two resolutions mean that in
2002, Council did not support management of Lakeside by the Council.
The Council supported calling for
expressions of interest for other groups or organisations to reopen Lakeside for
a range of motor and other activities.
As a result, Council officers investigated
the option of passing the operation of Lakeside to outside bodies. To this end,
a " Expressions of Interest document" was prepared with the intention of seeking
public interest in taking over Lakeside operation.
On advice from Council’s lawyers, the
calling for Expressions of Interest from the public to operate Lakeside was put
in abeyance pending the outcome of the Appeal on Heritage listing. [mp 03/1601]
Council’s present position of supporting
motorised and non-motorised activities is now constrained by its legal advice
until the outcome of the Heritage listing is finalised.
IMPACT OF HERITAGE LISTING:
Looking now at the issue of Council’s
opposition to the Heritage listing, Council’s view is that Heritage listing will
make it very difficult for anyone to run Lakeside as a viable business.
There are a lot of substandard buildings,
sheds, toilets and other facilities, some which need a lot of work and some
which need demolishing. This needs to be done especially if Lakeside is to be
reopened.
It is all very well having a Heritage
listing but if you have to make an application to a semi-government organisation
every time you want to bang a nail in, all the good ideas to make Lakeside a
successful venture, will go down the drain.
I would also ask you to remember that
Council considers that as owner of the facility and as the authority
representing the interests of the whole community, it has ultimate
responsibility to ensure the facility is maintained to a safe and reasonable
standard and that the facility’s future use meets community expectations around
issues including economic viability, safety, environment protection and
legislative compliance.
Council has done a lot of investigation on
the viability of using Lakeside. Without commenting further in that regard, let
me pose a hypothetical question ……
With Heritage Listing, any works to be
done need an approval from the Heritage Council. If you were an organisation or
business wanting to fix up and operate Lakeside, would you be happy if every
time you wanted to do some work on the complex, you would need to apply to the
Heritage Council for permission to do the work.
As I mentioned before, Council generally
has the view at the moment that if Lakeside is to be reborn, a government
organisation such as the Council would not be the best organisation to do it.
There are a lot of potentially exciting
things that can be done at Lakeside and Council’s feeling is that Council will
continue to own it and a business or even a "not for profit" quasi business
organisation would be better to run it. That is why the Council was going down
the track of calling for Expressions of Interest, before the brakes were put on
it by the Heritage listing.
I understand the reason for this meeting
is to consider whether you as a Chamber want to support the Heritage listing.
If you think Lakeside would be good for
business in the Shire that is one thing and Council certainly supports that
position
The crux of the opposition by Council to
the Heritage listing is its belief that the listing is not good for the
long-term future of Lakeside.
So yes, support the reopening of Lakeside…
Council does, but if you really want it to happen, think about how Heritage
listing will achieve this.
It is all very well talking about all the
great things that can happen at Lakeside, but if there is no-one to do it or
operate the track without going bust then all the good ideas will stay as
dreams.
Bryan Galvin
Deputy Mayor &
Division 6 Councillor
Pine Rivers Shire Council
21 July 2003
