Motorsport

Motorsport and the Planning Process

Nothing matches the feeling: the throttle's pulled back, fingers squeezing the clutch, sitting forward over the tank so it doesn't flip back, the starting gate drops - your off front wheel in the air! Twenty, sometimes thirty competitors on 125 or 250cc dirtbikes charge for that first corner before embarking on a race around a dirt track of jumps, berms and straights.

As a avid dirt bike enthusiast and fifth year Town Planning student at Newcastle University I became involved in the planning issues and theory surrounding motorsport and motor recreation within the planning system. Surprisingly, motor sport is not new; motorcycle scrambling is peculiarly English in origin, beginning on the Moors in the Yorkshire Dales before the First World War.

Thousands of competitors partake in motorsport events each year and the industry employs some 50,000 full time workers and 100,000 part time workers . Almost every weekend the various disciplines of motorcycle and car races happen all over England.

Most of these races operate under the 14/28-day rule of the General Permitted Development Order and at a local club level. However contentions seem to arise when motorsport facilities - the motocross tracks, the trials competitions (remember Junior Kick Start on TV?) - require planning permission. It appears that Local Plans are not always prepared nor have the suitable policies, to assess these unique applications when they arrive.

LARA promoting the responsible use of motorsport

LARA is the Motoring Organisations' Land Access and Recreation Association. A national umbrella group for most of the major organisations involved with motor sport and recreation. LARA was formed in 1986 and one of the major stimuli was the publication of a report 'Providing for Motorsport', funded by the (then) Sports Council, with the research undertaken by a team from Oxford Polytechnic led by Professor Martin Elson. This report identified that the many different disciplines in motor sport were failing to work together to secure access to land, and that the land use planning system - and the governmental processes - were failing 'difficult' sports like motor sport in facility provision.

The member organisations of LARA were and are adamant that it in no way usurps their own positions as national bodies, but it does provide that essential forum for discussion of access issues, and the ability to speak - on most issues with a unified voice. LARA is not a 'pressure group' in the way that, say, the Ramblers' Association or CPRE is.

Alan Kind, who is based in Newcastle upon Tyne, is LARA's 'Planning Officer'. Describing his position he says:

"My role is as 'Planning Officer' (part time) and we have two other Officers, one looking after motor sport issues and the other for motor recreation - but the three of us inevitably overlap considerably. LARA has no permanent office - we are quite a 'lean machine'. People think that because Formula One and World Rallying are multi-million pound enterprises that all motor sport is rich. It is not. Down at the grass routes it is as volunteer-based and hand-to-mouth as any sport; probably worse than many."

LARA aims to present the true facts about a group of sports that are often badly misrepresented and, at the same time, educate and inform the participants and organisers of motor sport about their responsibilities and duties in environmental and planning matters. All the member organisations pay a membership contribution to the running of LARA and, for the past nine years, has enjoyed grant aid from the Sports Council (now Sport England) for the work in England, although this assistance - as is always the case - will cease in a few years time.

Motorsport and the Planning System

Alan says: "The Planning Officer's role only came about a few years ago when LARA realised that motor sport must change its approach and try to 'plug in' to the land use planning processes in a pro-active way. We produce materials for planners explaining motor sport and materials and training for motor clubs explaining planning - then we try to broker an introduction! At first we tried to have an active input into every local and structure plan, but the sheer volume of these, and the lengthy process, made that a vain attempt. More recently we have concentrated on production of informative and advisory materials so that local motor club people can get to grips with their own local plans and the rest. This requires a big shift in attitude at a time when all sports - not least our own - are finding it harder and harder to find volunteers to run events and do the unseen, unthanked backroom tasks."

LARA is currently looking into ways of involving club volunteers through the use of the internet in order for them to comment on their Local Plans. This is aimed to generate pro-active policies for motor sport rather than restrictive ones. This seems to be one realistic way of commenting on the hundreds of Local Plans that exist, one individual cannot possibly comment on all Local and Structure Plans by themselves.

For several years a widening gap has existed between motorsport organisations and the Planning system, due mostly to them operating within the Permitted Development (PD) time scales. Alan says the relationship between the two has been historically poor:

"Outside the permanent circuits like Brands Hatch, and other stadium sports like speedway and stock cars, most motor sport depends on occasional access to land within permitted development rights. Most of the time this works very well, but the ever-upward level of conservation and other land designations, and the spread of housing into formerly remote countryside, has squeezed motor sport quite hard. Operating in the planning processes, from lobbying national Government, right down to local dispute resolution, is a long-term process and we are relative beginners."

Motorsport is recognised as a legitimate land use yet its reference in PPG 17 (Sport and Recreation) is limited. Alan is critical of the government guidance:

"It is fine for guidelines like PPG 17 to suggest 'put the moto-cross track down by the bypass', but that seldom addresses the reality of the situation. Most - in terms of number of events - motor sport operates as an occasional use of land. Very often the landowners are doing it in an altruistic way, not making anything like an economic return on what they charge the clubs. A farmer will let a club use a piece of land for a motorcycle or car trial maybe twice a year. The club operates under permitted development rights, cleans up afterwards, and this can become a regular but almost unseen use of the land for decades."

This appears to contribute the issue of Local Plans being unprepared for temporary uses that operate under PD rights. Because the use is temporary, the forward-looking planning processes are essentially incapable of recognising, acknowledging and safeguarding that temporary use as a valuable recreational asset. Sport England is currently running a pilot scheme on 'SASPs': Special Areas for Sport, where (if the concept runs) there will be a non-statutory designation of valuable sporting sites, both permanent and temporary. Alan argues that Local Plans and recreation strategy documents must acknowledge motor sports and admit that they are legitimate and need provision.

The Historic Scott Trial

As Alan refers to above, the increasing level of policy designations can remove PD rights generating applications. Alan illustrates this with an application he dealt with in 1999, describing it as an interesting example of the contentions in planning. In North Yorkshire there exists a motorcycle trial called the Scott Trial, held once a year, dating back to before the First World War. Except for the war years, it has run continuously every year since -making it one of the oldest sports events still running in Yorkshire. It is even older than Leeds United Football Club. For about the last 50 years it has taken place in and around Arkengarthdale and Richmond, usually at the end of October. Obviously it depends entirely on the goodwill of the moorland landowners and parishes to run, and all income from programme sales goes back to the local communities.

However, one day, large areas of the moorland that the event passes over (mainly using cart and sheep tracks - not open moor) became designated as SSSI and, later, parts as SPA because of ground-nesting birds. Therefore the event, although a purely temporary use, for one day a year and operating under Permitted Development Rights, required planning permission. Alan faced several problems in securing planning permission for the historic motorcycle trial:

"English Nature was fine about it. The birds are long-gone by October and a set of rules was agreed whereby the organisers laid out a provisional course early in the year, then consulted on this with English Nature and the Local Planning Authority (Yorkshire Dales National Park) through the year. They amended the provisional course, as land use and conservation considerations demanded. The Local Planning Authority was concerned at first (National Park policies don't like motor cycle events - even those that were there over 40 years before the National Park itself was created) but it all got sorted out and the Scott Trial is now protected by the planning process rather than threatened by it."

This historical race, which gave birth to modern day moto-cross and the term 'scrambling', as the Edwardian referred to it as 'such a scramble' could have been threatened and lost for ever. It's interesting to consider that this race existed well before such planning land use designations did; yet these land use designations may have threatened it.

Permitted Development Rights - the framework supporting motor sport.

Apart from the obvious planning permissions as and when they arise, motorsport continues to operate within the PD allowance of 14 days per year, but even this may not always be adequate, causing conflict between planning professionals and event organisers, as Alan comments:

"In a sport like auto grass racing (car grass track) modern safety and insurance requirements demand a decent safety fence around the track to protect the spectators. Such a fence need not be particularly intrusive visually, but it is plainly outside permitted development rights and seen as a permanent structure, although the actual racing itself is still just a temporary and occasional activity. Experience shows that some planning officers seem to delight in such 'trip wires' as a way of preventing otherwise permitted activities".

This situation is echoed by moto-cross tracks that operate under permitted development rights but have mounds of earth acting as jumps, requiring planning permission. The draw back of the PD allowance is that temporary tracks can be sited almost anywhere, even close to built up areas or adjacent to motorways causing distractions to drivers. LARA issues good practice guides about PD allowance and advice on suitable siting a race track, positioning the start line and use of a PA system to minimise conflicts with other people who may live or work in the locality - common sense really.

One of the sport's biggest difficulties is for the provision of practice, training and casual use facilities. Whereas competitions can use land under PD, training tends to be wanted for more than 14 days a year, and this requires more permanent facilities. There's not a lot of money in such places, but they do provide a valuable social service in reducing the level of illegal riding and driving. A moto-cross track in South Yorkshire makes itself available for practice outside race meeting days and not surprisingly the local competitors are good from that area.

Sustainability and the issue of motor sports.

With the agenda of sustainability that planning has recently adopted, it could be argued that motor sports are not sustainable developments. Alan argues that it is not as obvious as that:

"It is easy to say 'motor sport burns fuel and is therefore not sustainable'. But let's get the blinkers off here. Every week hundreds of thousands of people drive to football matches. Our politicians drive to the opera and even our current Countryside Minister has a holiday home in a National Park! Millions of people jet off on holiday every year (increasingly two or three times a year), and the roads are choked with people driving to out of town shopping and recreational facilities. Get real! Is anyone really saying that a few rally cars and trials bikes are destroying the environment? Perhaps the best way to stop traffic choking the Lake District is to ban hiking and mountain biking."

Actually, bringing motor sports into the planning processes fully, mutually and positively would assist the issue of 'sustainability'. Land needs should be assessed and provision made accordingly. Sustainability in the planning context is not about stopping activities, but ensuring they are as low-impact as reasonably and practically possible.

The future

The planning process incorporates many issues and frictions in relation to motorsport activities and as argued above the Local Plans are not always prepared to deal with them when they appear on the Development Control Officer's desk. Yet motor sport is legitimate, historic and a popular activity and will continue to be. With the continuing work of LARA and its pro-active role in the planning process, some of the conflicts between planning and motorsport are resolving. Perhaps this is best summarised by LARA's slogan: "Promoting the responsible use of land for motor sport and motor recreation".