Mayor's U-turn on Lakeside - AUS-CITY Message Forums

Lakeside Motor Racing Enthusiasts cautiously welcomed the announcement by the Pine Rivers Shire Council to invite 7 of the 11 interested parties to submit business proposals for the management and development of Lakeside International Raceway. Pine Rivers Mayor, Cr Yvonne Chapman, said Council was excited by some of the prospects presented by the interested groups, which encompassed a range of activities including motorised sport, driver training, youth programs, outdoor sport and recreation as well as tourism development. "The potential for Lakeside is enormous and Council will be looking at options that gain the best outcome economically for the community," she said. LMRE president Ian Milton observed, "This is a big change in attitude for the mayor, but it doesn't guarantee the return of club-level motor racing to Lakeside just yet." "We trust this will be a transparent tender process and challenge the Council to include a mechanism for both the ratepayers of the shire and the motorsport community to have input into the future of Lakeside - instead of getting another backroom heritage deal," he said. Mayor Chapman said, "Council would prefer a consortium of parties to offer an innovative, multi-purpose solution for the restoration of activity at the site." "This is our chance to once again turn Lakeside into a major drawcard for Pine Rivers - the flow on effects would be significant." Parties invited to submit business proposals are:

Total Driver Pty Ltd</li>
RACQ</li>
YMCA Brisbane</li>
Willowbank Race Circuit Pty Ltd</li>
Motorcycling Queensland/Motorcycling Australia</li>
Queensland Police Citizens Youth Welfare Association</li>
Juniper Development Group</li>

Ian Milton noted, "Even though the list of tender applicants gives us hope, there's still a lot of unanswered questions like, what politically motivated hurdles are they going to have to contend with, what's going to happen in four years when the Heritage Council deal expires and how is the Council going to compensate us for denying access to our sporting facilities for all these years?" Council said it was hopeful of having an arrangement in place by September.