Media release
14 September 2009
About 60 people who attended a public meeting in Barrabool on Monday night expressed their anger at plans to develop McAdam Park into a major regional motorsports facility. Surf Coast Shire Mayor Libby Mears and Councillors Lindsay Schroeder, Dean Webster and Brian McKiterick heard residents express their disbelief at the scale of the proposed development, which Council officers confirmed spreads over a 300 acre area and involves multiple new tracks and infrastructure. The meeting overwhelmingly supported, without dissent, a motion strongly objecting to the proposed development.
Liberal candidate for the federal seat of Corangamite, Sarah Henderson, was applauded when she stated that while she supported the concept of a motorsports complex in the Geelong region, she questioned whether it was appropriate to locate such a facility in the Barrabool Hills. She also questioned the process by which the substantial public investment in the project had been achieved, without any community consultation.
Residents welcomed the offer of CEO of Motorcycling Australia, David White, to consult with the community and seek a mutually agreeable outcome. Mr White advised the meeting that the business case which had been the basis for seeking funding from state and local government was over-ambitious in terms of profit projections and needs substantial revision. Residents in turn questioned why Motorcycling Australia and state and local governments had invested more than $2 million in a project which has little chance of achieving any reasonable return. Mr White agreed it was time to ‘draw a line in the sand’ and advised he wished to consult with the community so as to achieve a mutually acceptable outcome. He agreed to seek the views of the board of Motorcycling Australia this week on the meeting’s request to halt the re-zoning application. Residents agreed, in turn, to consider Mr White’s suggestion that only 100 acres of the available 300 acres be subject to a rezoning application.
A motion asking Surf Coast Shire to halt the rezoning application, pending consultation with the community and better assessment of environmental and social impacts of the proposed development, was passed with overwhelming support and no dissent.
For any further enquries please contact the BRPG:
Phone: 03 4201 0270
Post: PO Box 1772, Geelong, VIC, 3220.
Paul Morgan
Ian Kelly
Heather Wellington
On behalf of the Barrabool Rural Protection Group