People were at the South Gippsland Highway and Western Port Road, Lang Lang, intersection to wish the bike riders well as they headed for Phillip Island.PEOPLE lined the South Gippsland and Bass Highways last weekend to wave what seemed like millions of motorbike riders on their way to Phillip Island on Saturday and home again on Sunday.
The Phillip Island Grand Prix has become a Mecca for motorbikes and this is an event that has during the past few years involved the City of Casey in a big way, particularly at Cranbourne.
The grand prix is an economic goldmine and major sporting and social activity for the wider community.
Police said they had an ‘absolutely wonderful time’ over the grand prix weekend because of the excellent behaviour of bike riders and the community.
They said the event was incident free except for two accidents on Phillip Island, with one rider taken to The Alfred hospital.
My view of the Phillip Island Grand Prix is that its management has been finetuned and this has resulted in the event being totally embraced by the community.
Casey mayor Neil Lucas waved an estimated 13,000 motorbikes off from Cranbourne on Saturday morning and thousands of people were at vantage points along the highways to wave them along their way.
The whole thing was good clean fun.
This, added to a record crowd at the racetrack, leaves little doubt that the grand prix is one event we should do everything possible to retain.
The industry creates thousands of jobs and provides enormous pleasure for young and old, besides affordable transport.
This success makes me wonder just what the Shire of Cardinia is on about when it takes a stand against providing a motor sport facility for young bike riders.
This facility proposed for Pakenham, if it is permitted, has the potential to teach and train young riders in road laws, safety and courtesy.
Without a designated riding facility, more and more underage riders will be seen riding illegally and dangerously.
Cardinia mayor Garry Runge was reported, Pakenham News 6 October, that: “If a benefactor donates a block of land, that would be something, otherwise there is no land suitable for a motor sports facility in Cardinia Shire.”
Others, along with me, do not agree.
Personalities and mistrust, blaming the other guy, scare mongering about noise and dust and pure bull headedness on both sides of the argument has put the one possibility of getting a motor sports facility at dire risk.
We even have neighbouring municipalities intending to take different positions when the application for a permit for the Wayne Maslen plan to build a motor sports facility goes before the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT).
VCAT does not operate under a ‘black and white’ system.
VCAT very often brings down decisions that some councillors question so there is no sure thing of which way this application will go.
If VCAT takes up the mayor’s comment that no other land is available then it just may provide a pathway for further negotiation on the Maslen Site, south of Pakenham.
Cardinia should at least be asking VCAT to put the application on hold or to order further discussion between the interested parties before having it thrown out.
Reasons may exist that would prevent the site from being used, but they most certainly have not been seriously tested.
VCAT may allow the permit, who knows, but I am being told that the applicant’s business plan is at risk of not holding up at a VCAT review.
This is a pity when ample opportunity exists for a professionally prepared application to be developed and it is a tragedy that the two councils and their regional motor sports facility working party could not work with the applicant to see that this happened.
So far we have not heard a substantial argument against the proposal, but on the other hand I am not seeing or hearing an argument in favour of the proposal that would convince me if I were on a VCAT tribunal.
The matter will be heard at VCAT on Monday 27 February.
We have in that time, council elections in Cardinia and Casey that could see changes, and time for both sides to cool down and think a little more about the need to cater for motor sports as would be done for any other sport or interest in the community.
