Grachan

The irony of all this that I am not getting adverts for Taylor-Wimpey all over my social media telling me that they are "building a better World".

More from Justin Tomlinson MP. "SWINDON SPEEDWAY - Detailed Response (I hope it helps)... I have been personally involved in supporting Swindon Speedway since the initial campaign to block the closure in 2008. To save the stadium, it was agreed housing adjacent to the stadium could be built if the stadium remained open and ultimately modernised (new stand etc). At the time this was a huge relief and Swindon Speedway carried on with many years of success. As fans were nervous about the stadium owners intentions, it was agreed that the final phase of planned housing (where the stadium owners get a financial share) could only proceed once the stadium works have been completed. Swindon Council repeatedly held firm on this. Whilst speedway continued, works to upgrade the stadium never materialised despite repeated promises / false starts. Covid then hit, speedway was paused, and all seemed lost. Perhaps to many people’s surprise the long awaited new stand appeared ready for construction earlier in the year – finally we seemed set to get the promised new stand and associated works. After a flurry of work, again progress stalled. We all continued to press for action, or at the very least updates. Finally, this week it was confirmed that Swindon Speedway would not be able to proceed as the stadium would not re-open, triggered by an expected loss of the greyhounds. Speedway only operates 20 nights per year, paying a relatively small amount of rent, so the stadium is reliant on the greyhound TV money to remain viable. It is important to understand the stadium is privately owned so no-one can force them to either complete the stadium works or operate speedway. However, Swindon Council are rightly still refusing to relax the conditions, so if the stadium owners cannot complete the works, the final phase of housing will remain blocked. Taylor Wimpey (the developer of this final phase) had been set to start, as the owners had promised them stadium works would shortly be completed. They have now been told that works cannot proceed. Both Swindon Council and I will make sure that the owners cannot escape the planning conditions. So, what happens now? Firstly, nothing. This isn’t ideal for anyone – more seasons pass with Swindon Speedway unable to compete, fans drift away making it harder for them to return competitively – especially in the wider context of the challenges national speedway is facing with declining crowds and deteriorating finances. Secondly, the stadium owners may have to accept the work needs to be completed to unlock the housing. This would be very welcome but doesn’t guarantee how long the stadium would then continue to operate, especially if reliant on just 20 evenings of speedway per year. Thirdly, the stadium owners have suggested an alternative site is found. This is nonsense, the Abbey Stadium has been perfectly suitable all these years and is surely easier to modernise than starting from scratch in some unknown location. Finally, the owners could and should actively seek to sell the stadium to someone who could complete the works and find other uses to sit alongside speedway to make it financially viable. Would this work, is there a potential buyer? Only time will tell, but for the sake of generations of fans it is only right this is explored fully and urgently. The stadium looked lost in 2008, let’s hope we can see another last-minute saviour come forward."

Quote from Swindon's MP on Twitter: "I've spent years trying to save the stadium. Nothing has changed, SBC will not allow housing (where GI make money) to proceed until the stadium is completed. If GI can't make it work (because of the loss of greyhounds) they need to try and sell the stadium to someone who can." It will be interesting to see if and when building on the hideously named "Robins Gardens" actually starts.

To be honest, I expect that if you hadn't posted it then it still wouldn't have made its way into the public domain. Because you put that here, they had no choice but to announce it. I'm assuming that the snippet that you posted was from 30 August judging by the numbers at the top. That's a week before they started moving the crates out of the car park and saying that reports of the end of Greyhound Racing at the Abbey were not true. Once you made that post and people became aware of it, they had to make the announcement. It's quite shocking that we had to hear it from you rather than anyone involved with speedway - either the club or the BSPA.

Foxhill Moto X area maybe. I can't see it happening though. The thing is, they could have done that 15 years ago if they really had the inclination so it's probably a pipe dream.

Providing that is real, it looks like the club themselves have now effectively waived the right to prevent any more houses being built and the stadium will no longer be built.

Over a heat-by-heat scoring, Nielsen was clearly a cut above everyone. However, all Gundersen had to do would be finish in the top 8 and make the semi-final. Once in the semi's he would be Hans' worst nightmare!

Under the old scoring system maybe. Under this scoring system Gundersen would have matched him.

It's been obvious for a while that Zmarzlik was going to win this year, but there was a risk of Bewley stealing his thunder at the end of the year. Zmarzlik put that to bed tonight. The way he expertly conned Bewley into the tapes in Dan's last ride was almost genius if it was intended - and, judging from his interview just afterwards, Dan knew it. The future for GB looks good, though, with Rob Lambert and Dan Bewley probably now our top two as Tai rests easy on his laurels. British riders probably should have worn black arms bands considering the effort made by the organisers and having the UK flag at half-mast. That's down to Team GB to sort out probably rather than the riders themselves.

According to this: Taylor Wimpey to begin work on new Swindon housing development (swindonlink.com) the new houses are called "Robin Gardens" of all things. Planning permission was granted in June 2022. "Planning permission was granted in June 2022 and following the exchange of contracts last month - August 2022 - work is due to start on site soon." No mention of any conditions before building work begins.

Details of a new development. This, presumably, is the reason that the containers were moved, as it is in the old car park. Taylor Wimpey to begin work on new Swindon housing development (swindonlink.com) It's even called "Robin Gardens"!

How about a grading system. get the refs thinking a bit and cause some controversy at the same time. Do we need to automatically exclude a rider? In a 50/50 accident have all 4 back. If a rider is deemed the cause of the stoppage then re-run but with a handicap (or a "Yellowcard"). If the rider is seen as dirty rider then exclude them from the race (Red card). Imagine the boos from the crowd when that happened. Top entertainment. Oh, we can't have that can we. And put the ref's phone back by the start line. Nice for a bit of old-skool aggro.

There's plenty of Russians still competing in other sports so they may feel it's not achieving anything if others don't do the same. Take a look at the US Open tennis line up next week. Plenty of Russians and Belarussians in it. Meanwhile Djokovic is barred because he's not vaccinated. Personally I hooe they are back next year. They are Polish citizens after all.

If Dan stats tip 6 I think that supercedes the GP Challenge, so the place would go to the rider who came 4th in the challenge.

I thought it was very well done. I thought the presenters were very good - light-hearted, chatty and knowledgeable. They kept my interest during the long gaps much better than happens on Eurosport. I thought Dave Rowe and Adam Roynan complemented each other well too.

I think riders lie Tom Brennan need to quit the Championship now if they are going to move up in class. Stick with the top flight for now, but they need to concentrate on riding abroad too. The first step, though, is stop riding in the comfort zone of Division 2. Rding in Poland's top league has to be the goal in the end. There is a reason that riders like Bewley and Lambert have moved up in standard, and it's the same reason that many Swedes, Poles, Danes and Americans did the same in the past by concentrating on making it in the top league in the World.

I went to an Autorace meeting in Japan once, which is the Japanese version of speedway. A rider had a big crash. They removed his bike, got him into an ambulance and removed him from the track before the riders came round on the next lap. Craziest thing I ever saw!

Possibly. They may have called for an ambulance to come to the stadium so that the other can stay there.

If in doubt, get people to sing "so good so good so good" while an injured rider is being put into an ambulance. It'll be Amarillo next!

The track is coming to life now! Great heat 8. The feed is ok, but for 15 quid it could be a bit more professional. I'm having to log on to Updates to follow the scores.

I'm still on the pre-event page too.

I agree. I wonder if the heat was anything to do with it this time. Or having a practice on it the day before. I tend to go every 3 or 4 years, but might go a bit more regularly now as I don't have a team to support.

That's part of the problem! How many fans would prefer to sit on a bend in a foldable chair with a flask of tea and sandwiches wrapped in cellophane to watch a meeting? Quite a few I'll bet!

People are unbelievable really. We get one chance a year to have a Speedway meeting in the UK that feels like a proper sporting event and people don't want to know about it. Yes, the track was bad this year. But the event itself was still great even though speedway fans decided they don't want a proper sports stadium inconveniencing their schedule and stayed away. Watch Chris Harris winning in 2007. The riders were bouncing all over the place, but they still went for it. Jason Crump and Greg Hancock both seemed of the opinion that this track was no worse than the older Cardiff tracks. It had improved in recent years, though, which, I guess, is why this one seemed particularly bad. I also wonder if having the practice the day before added to the track cutting up. If Cardiff ends up being dropped because fans decide to stay away then it just proves that Speedway fans really are completely nuts.

Oh dear. Now we are letting the fans vote for the rules are we? And on Twitter of all places? Remember the "vote for who is in heat 15" charade? Just as well they are not voting for a return to only 13 heats and being allowed to touch the tapes or we'd be getting that back too.