Coventry Bees Speedway - Brandon Stadium

I'm so sorry.

Very sad, the end of a formerly glorious era.

From "Save Coventry Speedway and Stox" RUGBY Borough Council have announced that the Brandon Estates application to replace Brandon Stadium with 124 houses and a 3G football pitch will be taken to Planning Committee on Wednesday September 14. Quite incredibly, the officer's recommendation is for the application to be approved. This is despite the overwhelming evidence provided to the contrary, and the unprecedented public opposition to the application at every stage in the process over the last six years. It is important to stress that the recommendation does not mean the application has been successful, as it will now be down to the Committee made up of 12 Councillors to vote on a decision. The Planning Committee meeting is set for 5.30pm on Wednesday September 14, and whilst attendance in the Chamber is extremely limited, we would like to invite all speedway and stock car fans, and members of the local community, to congregate at Rugby Town Hall from around 4.30pm to again underline to Rugby Borough Council the strength of feeling which exists, and has been largely ignored by the Planning Officer despite consultation reactions which are unprecedented in the Council's history. We are currently reviewing the report and will make further detailed comment over the coming days. We will also be speaking at the planning meeting as objectors. The report's conclusion is that the application satisfies the provisions of paragraph 99c of National Planning Policy Framework, in that the benefits of the 'alternative sports provision' of the 3G football pitch are deemed to outweigh the loss of the former use as a speedway and stock car track. It is already clear that the report reproduces many untrue and misleading statements made by Brandon Estates but makes little mention of the counter evidence submitted by ourselves which conclusively disprove them, and also leaves out completely several other matters of significance. In our view, the report has been written to support a pre-determined conclusion, and we are shocked and appalled by the contents. There will be a further update later this week.

I bet that planning officer is not local person. We had a house on a corner plot near us for sale and the buyer wanted to convert it into four flats. After local objections, the planning application was rejected, but on appeal it was passed by a planning officer from Swindon, 22 miles away.

"FOLLOWING the sad passing of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, we have received notification that Wednesday's Planning Committee meeting has been postponed. The meeting will now take place at a later date, likely to be in October, and we will advise details of that new date as soon as it is confirmed. We thank everyone for their expressions of support since the publication of the Planning Officer's report, and for those who intended to be present at Rugby Town Hall on September 14 - please do not attend now, as the meeting is not taking place. We are working on preparations for the meeting in the light of the report, and will update everyone with revised details when they are available."

"Campaign group has received updated info to confirm that a decision on the developers planning planning application will not now be discussed at the next RBC planning committee on Wednesday October 12th. "A new date is unconfirmed. The next date for a planning committee hearing will be November 9th, two working days before the restaged trial date, in which RBC takes the developers to court. "RBC is obliged to a give a minimum of 5 working days notice of the planning agenda for each meeting. "We will of course update you as soon as we know. "In our latest statement, we also raise a concern about one particular procedural anomaly, which we feel may bring into question the manner in which this planning application has so far been handled. "At this juncture, it's difficult to know categorically whether this error, made by officers within the managerial heirachy at RBC.was a genuine mistake or not, "This is not a one-off occurence of course, and at some point in the near future, we aim to make further statements on whether we believe the process has been followed correctly, fairly and impartially in accordance with RBC's own planning guidelines." Further update

Is this Brandon?

Certainly is!

I'm sure I remember that Ron Mountford was a pretty useful show jumper in his youth! Anyone able to confirm that?

This "Critique" by the SCS, published today, is extremely long, but absolutely fascinating.

Good luck to SCS in their battle with planners and the developers. I used to go to Brandon in the early 1960's to watch the Stock Car Racing but also kept an eye on the Bees results. When I moved to Oxfordshire I got to know a few people who were Oxford Cheetahs fans and they were very passionate about their Speedway. I was invited along in the early 1970's to a match against the Bees as they knew I was from Coventry.

From the campaign group:. THE planning application submitted by Brandon Estates to replace our motorsports stadium with a housing estate and ancillary 3G football pitch will be taken to committee at Rugby Town Hall on Wednesday November 9, from 5.30pm. Despite assurances given to us that the new planning officer would be reviewing all of the information of the past six years with a clean slate, her revised Report still unbelievably recommends approval of the scheme. This is despite the biggest and most overwhelming consultation response in the history of RBC, and the fact that the application is clearly deficient in numerous ways - most pertinently, it conflicts with both the Local Plan and the Brandon & Bretford Neighbourhood plan (dismissed by the Officer), conflicts with Green Belt Policy, and conflicts with National Planning Policy Framework which it attempts to get around via a misapplication of paragraph 99c. The final decision rests with the 12 elected councillors who constitute the planning committee, who have the power to overturn the officer's recommendation and reject the application. We would like to invite all speedway and stock car fans to join us at the Town Hall on Wednesday evening in a respectful show of support for our sports. Whilst attendance in the gallery at the planning meeting itself will be extremely limited, we can still send a powerful message outside on the night to those who will be attending, and therefore we would advise arrival from around 4.30pm. We have already had confirmation that Bees legend Chris Harris and Formula 1 stock car driver Nigel Harrhy will be in attendance. This could, in fact, be a landmark case for all the wrong reasons, because if RBC do proceed with approving the application, they will be sending out a clear message that there is no point whatsoever in holding any future consultations, either public or statutory, as views expressed will be completely ignored if they happen to differ with the officer's own narrative. We should also point out that in our Briefing Paper 9, we made reference to the fact that, 23 weeks after the consultation period into our own application had ended, we had still not been afforded the opportunity to see the public response. Remarkably, this was forthcoming this week, and confirmed that there had been 943 letters of support and only eight against. 99.2% of the response was in our favour. Whilst the two applications are separate issues (and therefore reference to our own application should not have been included in the revised officer's Report, as planning permission is not required to bring back the sports) it does highlight the incredible strength of feeling of the local and wider world. The reactions to these applications are almost diametrically opposed, and yet which one are the officers of RBC putting their weight behind? It is all the more distasteful that yet again, in the revised Report, the current condition of the stadium is used as a reason why the sports could never return. Let there be no doubt that this is a condition enabled by the shameful tactics of the applicants and their non-existent security and alleged failure to comply with a Community Protection notice - for which they will stand trial, in a case brought about by RBC, less than a week after the planning meeting! The treatment of speedway and stock car fans, and local residents, over the past six years, has been truly shocking. Wednesday evening is an opportunity for the committee members to do the right thing and block the planning application - and it is also an opportunity for a huge show of support for our sports.

Just heard the outcome - planning permission refused, well done all involved.