One of the England’s oldest motocross tracks needs you to help prevent closure
Butts Quarry in Derbyshire is one of the UK’s best-loved motocross tracks might close thanks to the NIMBY brigade
ONE of England’s oldest running and most popular motocross tracks is on the brink of closing thanks to NIMBY types moving in and moaning about the noise.
As a result, the venue was handed a noise abatement notice just before Christmas, clearly at a time when struggling circuits and venues could do without the extra pressure.
The story is a sorry tale and one that will be familiar to circuit owners and operators across the country. The track operates in the same location since the dawn of the internal combustion engine. Customers bring money and trade into what is otherwise a fairly rural area. Developers see this and build houses. Homes buyers complain about the noise from the track that they have just moved next door to.
You literally couldn’t make it up.
Barry Dring, the quarry owner, thinks the timing of the noise abatement notice was intentionally chosen so as to complicate the appeal process that he would need to lodge.
Speaking to TMX.co.uk, Dring said:
“It’s a deliberate attempt to make our appeal more difficult due to time constraints.
“The council have been forced by one individual into a judicial review despite the issue already being resolved and measures put in place…
“I just want to take this time to say that over the last three years we have done as much as we can to make the noise less of a nuisance than ever before. I had a letter just before lockdown that our case had been closed thanks to our efforts with the environmental office to come to an understanding as to limits and control of our lawful business.
“We have an agreement with the Environmental Agency to only operate once every 14 days between the hours of 9am and 5pm, along with noise testing where required. Obviously, this massively restricts its viability as a business, it does, however, allow us to maintain this beautiful area of land and enable many adults and children alike to pursue their passion in a safe and controlled environment.
“We never wavered from this agreement and yet with the knowledge that the local council are under threat from one local our case has miraculously been reopened and we have now been issued with an abatement notice, one that we are going to fight with confidence.”
In an attempt to halt the closure, a petition has now been set up, in the hope that it can help to show that Butts Quarry is not a nuisance and is totally beneficial to the area – even for those that have just moved to the area.
To show your support and stand up to the NIMBY brigade, CLICK HERE
Simon (AKA Toad) has been working within the motorcycle industry for more than twelve years, and a member of the motorcyclist family since birth. Growing up around British-built single and twins, it was inevitable that a life on two wheels was on the cards, from a very early age!
