2024 News

The club submitted a detailed and comprehensive response to Thurrock Council’s Initial Options (Regulation 18) consultation last weekend. This document, plus appendix, can be seen by clicking here.

We will continue to make the case for our long stated position that speedway is clearly and unequivocally included when the next stage in the Local Plan process is concluded.

We are also very grateful to all of the Hammers and speedway supporters in general who wrote or emailed the Local Plan team to add their support and make their views known. Thank you!

We will keep you up to date with any further news or developments.

Once again, our huge thanks for all of your support.

Image credit:  Ayshford Sansome

Thurrock Hammers are delighted that the Appeal against the refusal of planning permission to develop the Coventry Stadium site was dismissed on 19 January 2024.

We believe that this is the first time Speedway has defeated a track development scheme and see it as a watershed moment for the sport.

We are also proud to report that two members of our campaign team were involved in the Appeal process. Brian Connolly has been heavily involved with the Save Coventry Speedway Campaign for several years and Hammers Director Mark Sexton attended the Appeal hearing in Rugby to give evidence to correct suggestions being made on behalf of the Appellant.

To support the Appeal, the developer raised many of the same arguments that we have previously heard at Arena Essex but, after hearing from 22 witnesses over 9 days, the Planning Inspector appointed by the Secretary of State rejected the arguments raised against Speedway.

In effect, the Planning Inspector’s decision endorses Speedway’s right to exist and race on tracks located close to their fans.

It is a precedent which should apply to any Speedway track at risk to development, including Arena Essex, and it supports what we have been advocating about our situation all along.

The ‘Coventry’ decision is a great boost for the Thurrock Hammers Campaign and we will use it in the Local Plan Process to support our campaign for the retention of Speedway on the Arena Essex site.

As mentioned, following the omission of Speedway from the initial Local Plan Proposal for Thurrock, we are calling on all Hammers and Speedway fans who have supported our campaign, to work with us and take action, by submiting an email as part of the consultation process. Full information can be found here.

Image credit: Rafa Wlosek

At our request, on 25 January 2023, the full Thurrock Council unanimously passed a resolution to protect and include Speedway in its Local Plan process. 

It therefore came as a matter of considerable surprise and disappointment to find no mention of Speedway at the Arena Essex site, or in Thurrock when the Council published its Initial Proposals (Regulation 18) document as part of the Local Plan process in mid-December 2023.

In the light of what might be described as the Council Planning Department’s statement of intent, this is a matter of concern.

Following the omission of Speedway from the initial Local Plan Proposal we call on all Hammers and Speedway fans who have supported our campaign, to work with us and take action.

We say that national and Thurrock Council policies in place for the ongoing protection of sporting facilities at risk from development, MUST be applied for Speedway as part of any scheme for the development of the Arena Essex site.

Our position is that the correct application of these polices dictates that a Speedway track and associated facilities will be a requirement for any planning permission for the development of the Arena Essex site.

The Initial Local Plan Proposals (Regulation 18) document is part of a statutory consultation process and gives us an opportunity to make the case for Speedway’s inclusion. (https://consult.thurrock.gov.uk/)

The Hammers campaign team are in the process of doing exactly that and expect to timetable a meeting with a former leader of the Council and Thurrock Council’s Head of Place shortly.

The consultation process began on 18 December 2023 and will end on 19 February 2024.

This is the time and opportunity for you to register your views and work with us to try to ensure that Speedway’s future is secure in Thurrock.

As part of the consultation process it is vital that you let your views be known.

 Our call to action is to suggest that you email localplan@thurrock.gov.uk

In addition to making personal and straightforward expressions of interest that we all share, it is, as always, vital to put the point in planning terms to justify Speedway’s inclusion

To do that, can we suggest that you use some or all of the following text below. Send your email to: localplan@thurrock.gov.uk

Inclusion of speedway in the Thurrock Local plan

Since 1984 Speedway racing at Arena Essex has been a much valued local, regional, national and international sporting and recreational activity.

Until the closure of the Arena Essex Raceway in Speedway in 2018, the many nights I spent watching speedway racing at Arena Essex were an important part of my, [and my family’s] life for over [30] years.

Like thousands of others, the closure of this iconic sporting and community venue has been a huge loss to me, my friends and my family.

I believe that any loss of Speedway will be a significant loss to the local community as well as a matter of considerable regional, national and international concern.

To preserve Speedway, as Thurrock Council has done with other sporting facilities, I am writing to register my view that the preservation of a Speedway venue should appear in the new Local Plan in accordance with;

– National and local policies

– The mandate of Thurrock Council’s resolution passed at the Full Council meeting on 25 January 2023

– Recent local precedent

– The section 106 contribution that would be required to make any development of the Arena Essex site acceptable in planning terms.

Will you please take my view into account and ensure that Speedway is included in the Thurrock Local Plan and in particular at the Arena Essex site.

Yours faithfully

(Your Name)

Please cc newfacilities@thurrockhammers.com if possible. 

We thank you in advance for your ongoing support.