Council fines speedway operator | Bay of Plenty News | Local News in Bay of Plenty

Baypark Speedway has been fined $600 after two race meetings held late last year ran over time.

On December 21 council issued two infringement notices to Tauranga City Ventures Limited (TCVL), the council-owned company which runs Baypark, each worth $300.

Tauranga City Council has confirmed it received a number of complaints from different sources in relation to the two speedway race meetings held on November 5 and 19.

Council spokeswoman Alison Clifford said council's environmental monitoring team investigated five complaints relating to excess race and speaker noise, time overruns and an allegation that TCVL's compliance process was not operating pursuant to the resource consent.

Under the resource consent racing must finish by 10pm unless the last race is interrupted by a crash causing it to be temporarily stopped so the track can be cleared.

However, in these circumstances the racing cannot extend beyond 10.10pm.

Ms Clifford said the complaints about time overruns were upheld as there was sufficient evidence that the racing finished at 10.04pm on November 5 and 10.06pm on November 19.

In relation to the alleged noise breaches and the other complaint the evidence was not strong enough to issue infringement notices or a warning letter, she said.

Apart from backfiring of race vehicles on the track, noise from the site must not exceed a maximum of 65 decibels for race vehicles and 70 decibels for the public address system.

However, Ms Clifford said a letter was sent to TCVL on December 23 in respect to two further matters - the need to provide suitable evidence about wind conditions when TCVL decides not to monitor noise from races and a request to alter the wording on its website to reflect the consent requirements in respect to rained out days.

Baypark Speedway has run into problems in the past for not keeping within its noise limits and in 2010 it was fined $300 and issued with abatement notices.

Speedway general manager Ervin McSweeney told the Bay of Plenty Times Weekend that the infringement notices he had received contained very little detail and he was in the process of seeking more information from council before he would make any further comment.