In a press release on Saturday, Taranaki Motorsport Facility Charitable Trust announced it is ceasing attempts to develop a motorsport facility as part of the Stratford Park Project. It will instead focus attempts at locating another possible site.
The Stratford Speedway is not affected by the decision and continues to operate as a separate entity.
The Trust joined with the Stratford A&P in 2019 to form the Stratford Park project.
In 2020 the Stratford A&P applied for funding from the Stratford Council to purchase land adjacent to the Stratford A&P, to be used for the Stratford Park project.
After over 600 favourable submissions were received a loan of $7.1m was granted to support the land purchase.
In 2022 the Motorsport trust purchased an additional 18 hectares next door to the Stratford A&P where the motorsport facility would be based.
The purchase was supported by a loan and individual investors who funded the $1.2m purchase.
Since then, the Trust has focused on working through the various requirements to gain the ability to become operational, completing ecological, spatial, cultural impact, economic benefit, engineering, noise, traffic, and rail impact reports.
Despite an Economic Impact report which confirmed the Stratford Park project could generate $35m to the local economy annually, acceptance of the project into the Fast Track Consent process, and support shown by the Stratford District council, the project has struggled to gain wider political support or funding.
Additionally, recent changes to government policy resulting in a halt in all zone changes on land has forced the Trust to obtain a resource consent to operate under its current zoning regulations, which they have found challenging and outline the following reasons:
- The indicated noise restrictions that would be applied to the facility require the trust to reduce their operational capacity significantly; time, frequency, type and size restrictions were to be imposed.
- Access to the land has been limited to 100 vehicles per day, well below any viable operating level to generate crucial revenue.
These factors resulted in both Drag Racing Taranaki and Taranaki Stock Car Club advising out of the Motorsport Complex at its current site.
Overall, the operational restrictions being imposed would make the site unviable financially, and therefore the trust has reluctantly accepted that a motorsport facility cannot be operated on the site.
Whilst attempts to build the facility have ceased the Trust continues to operate and will explore other opportunities.
In the coming months the Trust will consider options for the current land, and in the meantime will continue to operate the land as a farm.
