Cliv Clav

Over 2,800 signatures so far, which is excellent. Thank you to everyone that has signed so far and please encourage all speedway fans to sign as we present to Thurrock Council shortly. Fingers crossed this campaign encourages them to find us another site. Here is the link: https://www.ipetitions.com/petition/support-the-return-of-lakeside-hammers-speedway Thanks again and a happy new year to all

Over 2,800 signatures so far, which is fantastic and a huge thanks to each and every one of you for signing. The Hammers fans really do appreciate other fans signing the petition to try to bring our favourite hobby and team back to Essex. We would love to get 3,000 signatures so please ask all speedway fans you know to add their names, if they haven't already. We present to Thurrock Council very soon and this petition will make an impact. Let's hope it's a big enough impact to secure a new site for us. Thanks again everyone and a happy new year to you all

A quick update: Thurrock Council have acknowledged our petition and have asked the Hammers to present the details of it and the campaign to get the team a new home in the area to the Thurrock Council's main cabinet in January or February. This will place both the club and the campaign on the council’s agenda such that it is recorded officially in Council minutes and ensure that the club gets an official response. So please get all speedway fans you know to keep signing the petition as it really is going to help us. We need riders, promoters and clubs to post/tweet links to the petition and the Speedway Star to actually put something in print as it is yet to appear in the magazine. Thank you all for signing so far, I wish I could give you all a hug or buy you a beer, whichever is most appropriate lol. Thanks for trying to save our team Here is the link: https://www.ipetitions.com/petition/support-the-return-of-lakeside-hammers-speedway

A quick update: Thurrock Council have acknowledged our petition and have asked the Hammers to present the details of it and the campaign to get the team a new home in the area to the Thurrock Council's main cabinet in January or February. This will place both the club and the campaign on the council’s agenda such that it is recorded officially in Council minutes and ensure that the club gets an official response. So please get all speedway fans you know to keep signing the petition as it really is going to help us. We need riders, promoters and clubs to post/tweet links to the petition and the Speedway Star to actually put something in print as it is yet to appear in the magazine. Thank you all for signing so far, I wish I could give you all a hug or buy you a beer, whichever is most appropriate lol. Thanks for trying to save our team Here is the link: https://www.ipetitions.com/petition/support-the-return-of-lakeside-hammers-speedway

Thank you so very much to all that have signed so far, it will help our cause massively when the council meet to allocate funds to regeneration projects shortly. To those who haven't signed yet, please do. It literally takes 10 seconds.

Thanks so much, it really does mean a lot to us Hammers fans to have the support of other clubs fans too. A quick signature on that petition can make all the difference in the long run. Thanks again

3000 was the attendance for the last meeting at Arena. Not sure where you read 800 mate. Just as a side note, for our free meeting that we held in 2007 against Poole, 7000 turned up and clogged up the surrounding roads leading to Arena Essex.

That's right, it was effectively an away match which we took 200ish fans to. That's good travelling for away fans in speedway today. Obviously, fans would turn up in greater numbers in Thurrock, as that's where Arena Essex was! You do realise Rye is another county and a further hour or so away for many fans right?. That's an extra 2 or more hours travelling for a match.

We are going to try everything to get the Hammers back in Essex. It took 12 years to find the Hammers a new home after West Ham closed, let's hope we are more successful now Arena Essex has been compulsory purchased. There are lots of occasional speedway fans in Essex, as shown by the attendances at the last meeting, free and subsidised meetings and the Lee Richardson Memorial. The way speedway has been run over the last 10 or more years has driven fans away from every track, but as a constant attended since 1990, I can assure you we have enough of a fan base and potential fan base to maintain a team in Essex. It's a shame you couldn't make it to Arena for speedway over the years, as it's always nice to meet other forum members. The management and fans are fighting hard to return the team to the area and surely other fans and teams should be supporting that.

The low crowd you mentioned was at Rye, not Arena.

Thank you so much! Every voice helps and with lots of development in the area over the next 20 years, we may get a chance to return and keep the biggest sports team in the region. Fingers crossed.

There are a few sites that may come into consideration from what I understand. The problem is that Thurrock have to find over 30,000 new homes in the next 20ish years! Which is crazy. But to put a positive spin on it, that's a lot of people that would need live entertainment in the region and that could well be the Hammers!

Admins: any chance this could be pinned just so everyone sees this? I will post this in each of the 3 leagues as we desperately need help from all speedway fans. If you think this is inappropriate please delete it, but this could be our best chance to be successful and we want to strike whilst the iron is hot. Could I please ask all speedway fans to take 10 seconds to sign the petition to help get a new venue for the sport in the Thurrock area of Essex? Here is the link: https://www.ipetitions.com/petition/support-the-return-of-lakeside-hammers-speedway The council meet shortly to discuss regeneration plans and how to spend monies from the compulsory purchase of the Arena Essex site and they are actually listening to the Hammers case as we have good grounds for some compensation after being left without a home. We currently have over 2500 signatures but we really need as many as possible. Only one signature per email address. You will receive an email saying thanks for signing, but nothing else. Please, please, please help our fight. We have meetings with the council and developers and the petition really does help our cause. The SGB website and the Speedway Star have not included stories about this, so we have had no help there. I know speedway fans love their sport and want as many clubs open as possible, so please sign or if you have already, thank you. For more info on our campaign please visit http://www.lakesidehammers.co/we-are-thurrocks-hammers/ Thanks everyone. Peace!

Admins: any chance this could be pinned just so everyone sees this? I will post this in each of the 3 leagues as we desperately need help from all speedway fans. If you think this is inappropriate please delete it, but this could be our best chance to be successful and we want to strike whilst the iron is hot. Could I please ask all speedway fans to take 10 seconds to sign the petition to help get a new venue for the sport in the Thurrock area of Essex? Here is the link: https://www.ipetitions.com/petition/support-the-return-of-lakeside-hammers-speedway The council meet shortly to discuss regeneration plans and how to spend monies from the compulsory purchase of the Arena Essex site and they are actually listening to the Hammers case, as we have good grounds for some compensation after being left without a home. We currently have over 2500 signatures but we really need as many as possible. Only one signature per email address. You will receive an email saying thanks for signing, but nothing else. Please, please, please help our fight. We have meetings with the council and developers and the petition really does help our cause. The SGB website and the Speedway Star have not included stories about this, so we have had no help there. I know speedway fans love their sport and want as many clubs open as possible, so please sign or if you have already, thank you. For more info on our campaign please visit http://www.lakesidehammers.co/we-are-thurrocks-hammers/ Thanks everyone. Peace!

Hi mate, just a side note that the Jason Doyle that has signed is a work colleague of mine that goes to speedway but isn't a rider. 2100ish homes will be built on Arena Essex, so our signatures out number that! We have had no stories about our campaign on the SGB website or the Speedway Star, as far as I know. So, I will start a thread of its own on here just to make others aware of our fight. Hope the admins are ok with that.