Brisbane, Queensland -
The Sunday
Mail headline screams "Time to Act" and The Courier Mail reports "hundreds of
motorcyclists" being booked for traffic infringements, but despite the obvious
need, Queensland is close to losing it's second motorsport facility, in as many
weeks, to another local Council.
The Pine
Rivers Shire Council is appealing the heritage listing of Lakeside International
Raceway in the Planning and Environment Court on Friday, 9 September. The
Queensland Heritage Council and the PRSC will finally have a secret deal
regarding the future of Lakeside ratified by the Court without any public
consultation. With no explanation
from the Heritage Council, both government bodies have worked to cover-up
details surrounding the future of the world's first and only heritage listed
race track.
After a lengthy
campaign by the Gold Coast City Council, Darlington Park Raceway was finally
been forced to close last week. It was the only alternative to racing on the
streets for any Queenslander living south of the Brisbane River.
Despite strong
support from traditional users and the business community, and even
though Lakeside still meets the requirements to be heritage listed, the Heritage
Council has decided not to spend any funds to defend it's own decision or the
cultural heritage of the people of Queensland.
"The Heritage Council's job is to protect the
unique cultural heritage of Queensland from people with developer's dollars in
their eyes. The Pine Rivers Mayor has used threats of unlimited financial
resources to intimidate and bluff weak State Government bureaucrats into
taking the easy way out,"
said Lakeside Motor Racing Enthusiasts president Ian Milton.
Despite once being
the largest tourist attraction in the Pine Rivers Shire, Mayor Cr Yvonne Chapman
has been publicly hostile towards motorsport at Lakeside and her council even
attempted to illegally re-zone the property while it was provisionally heritage
listed. LMRE is convinced that the heritage listing is the only thing protecting
the rare zoning, vital to Lakeside's ability to provide a safe venue for the
northside of Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast.
"Heritage
listing is the only thing preventing the Council from re-zoning Lakeside,
destroying our sport without compensation and any chance of getting hoons off
the public streets in the future.
Unfortunately, once we find out about the
details of this secret deal it'll be too late to do anything because the Court
decision will have already set the future in stone", said Mr Milton.
