Oxford

[teaboy279]

Some of the comments arent very complimentary.....

[RobMcCaffery]

3 hours ago, teaboy279 said:

Some of the comments arent very complimentary.....

Rarely are on newspaper websites. More loonies than certain corners of the BSF ;-)

 

[The Cheese]

I see some of the comments refer to the sport not being good for the climate. Rightly or wrongly that's something that is likely to be brought up in future whenever a stadium is looking to open/re-open/get permission to have extra meetings etc. And unless there is an apparent plan to become more environmentally friendly I suspect this will become a big problem.

[RobMcCaffery]

2 hours ago, The Cheese said:

I see some of the comments refer to the sport not being good for the climate. Rightly or wrongly that's something that is likely to be brought up in future whenever a stadium is looking to open/re-open/get permission to have extra meetings etc. And unless there is an apparent plan to become more environmentally friendly I suspect this will become a big problem.

It's the age-old argument that's based on the false assumption that we use petrol. So it's vital to get the methanol response ready. In reality though, it's a case of people clutching at any straw to save their property's value. 

[steve roberts]

14 minutes ago, RobMcCaffery said:

It's the age-old argument that's based on the false assumption that we use petrol. So it's vital to get the methanol response ready. In reality though, it's a case of people clutching at any straw to save their property's value. 

...and, again, I'd be interested to know what these self-interested people do as regards entertainment and what ticks their box?

[RobMcCaffery]

4 hours ago, steve roberts said:

...and, again, I'd be interested to know what these self-interested people do as regards entertainment and what ticks their box?

They would say "As long as it doesn't affect my house value who cares?"

 

[steve roberts]

7 hours ago, RobMcCaffery said:

They would say "As long as it doesn't affect my house value who cares?"

 

I was brought up on Blackbird Leys (and proud of it) and was a regular at the speedway at Cowley for many of those years. I well remember a resident who moved into Sandy Lane knowing full well that speedway and greyhounds took place there and continually moaned about the facility. Would write to the local paper and generally  make a nuisance of themselves. I recall the late Bernard Crapper commenting on same but eventually they moved out or died (I can't recall which) much to the relief of all and sundry. The same applied to the old Manor Ground in Headington whereby locals would complain about the football...and I would imagine that scenrio is repeated all around the country with locals being more pro-active in displaying their disapproval despite knowing the situation.

[iris123]

8 hours ago, RobMcCaffery said:

They would say "As long as it doesn't affect my house value who cares?"

 

And yet ironic that Steve turned into a nimby during the cycling world championships !!! Laugh, I almost moved to Ethiopia 

[steve roberts]

4 minutes ago, iris123 said:

And yet ironic that Steve turned into a nimby during the cycling world championships !!! Laugh, I almost moved to Ethiopia 

Totally different scenario to what's being discussed as you well know. As you brought up the subject of the Cycling World Championships I was in Harrogate only yesterday and the area known as "The Stray" resembles the Somme Battlefield and was fenced off and the surrounding pavements badly effected. A local I spoke too said that it's envisaged that it may take two years to put it right at Tax Payers expense.

[iris123]

No.You brought it up moaning how a sporting event had negative effects on business etc, but can’t see how others might see our sport in a negative light or even football. Trouble is when you start moaning about how one thing negatively effects you then it is hard to stop. That is the world we live in

Edited November 16, 2019 by iris123

[chunky]

13 hours ago, RobMcCaffery said:

It's the age-old argument that's based on the false assumption that we use petrol. So it's vital to get the methanol response ready. In reality though, it's a case of people clutching at any straw to save their property's value. 

Same as when Long Eaton were fighting to survive, and one of the major issues was that residents didn't want speedway as it attracted the "wrong sort of people" (bikers). Really?

If people have a legitimate concern, I have no problem with that, but when they simply manufacture these concerns thanks to ignorance and prejudice (or simply resort to downright lies), then yes, I do...

[steve roberts]

1 minute ago, iris123 said:

No.You brought it up moaning how a sporting event had negative effects on business etc, but can’t see how others might see our sport in a negative light or even football. Trouble is when you start moaning about how one thing negatively effects you then it is hard to stop. That is the world we live in

Been discussed and debated elsewhere.

[chunky]

3 minutes ago, iris123 said:

No.You brought it up moaning how a sporting event had negative effects on business etc, but can’t see how others might see our sport in a negative light or even football. Trouble is when you start moaning about how one thing negatively effects you then it is hard to stop. That is the world we live in

Some people are just going to moan whatever - and we have several really good examples here on the BSF...

[chunky]

I recall another case (can't remember the track, though), when residents complained about the year-round noise of speedway bikes all hours of the day and night, most days of the week.

And we let them get away with lies like that...

Still, we have seen how fact and truth mean nothing when people have opinions.

[iris123]

58 minutes ago, chunky said:

Some people are just going to moan whatever - and we have several really good examples here on the BSF...

Just came as bit of a surprise that on a sports forum, someone was complaining about a sporting event taking place near by !!!

Nowt so queer as folk , as they might say in Yorkshire

Edited November 16, 2019 by iris123

[chunky]

3 minutes ago, iris123 said:

Just came as bit of a surprise that on a sports forum, someone was complaining about a sporting event taking place near by !!!

Nowt so queer as folk , as they might say in Yorkshire

Nothing on the BSF should surprise you....

[brianbuck]

When it is a new venue or the re-opening of a previous venue, it's understandable to a degree, that people living locally will have concerns. The majority of the concerns will be honestly made but there will always be the few "professional" moaners who will do everything they can to influence that majority by the spreading of some quite ridiculous tales. At Birmingham, we convinced the City Council to give us a temporary planning consent for a trial period of three years. When the trial period was up, we had to re-apply and inevitably there was a hard core who became more and more desperate in their attempts to block it. Four residents wrote to the Council to say that they could put up with the noise, (they had little choice because the Council's own noise tests showed that the sound of the bikes was inaudible from their houses), but said that the "evil smell of the petrol was making them ill!" We even had people claim that people living several miles away from the stadium were subject to louder noise "because they didn't have the sound of the heavy traffic to drown it" - seriously trying to imply that whilst the noise from a very busy road decreased with distance, the noise from the speedway didn't!

Over the last six years, Birmingham Speedway has received just one complaint - and that was about noise from the tannoy not the bikes.

Although we can never completely eliminate the attentions of the nimbys, I always found that whenever we could have a face to face meeting with local residents, they were invariably reasonable and willing to listen to our point of view - and the biggest mistake that we can make is to try and ridicule what are people's genuine concerns.

[RobMcCaffery]

Among the prejudices we face is the mistaken idea that we were American-style car racing with the track used daily for hours on end with cars belching out petrol fumes is a major problem. As Brian Buck points out, only face to face education can solve this. People get scared and then start believing more and more rubbish that reinforces that.

 

Many years ago attempts were made to introduce speedway to Southend Stadium (ironically designed as a speedway track) met with two objections apart from noise. 

"We don't want those hyell's angels here"

"We don't want all those programmes thrown into our gardens"

 

Ignorance supported by fear is a heck of an opponent.

 

Edited November 17, 2019 by RobMcCaffery

[Halifaxtiger]

1 hour ago, brianbuck said:

When it is a new venue or the re-opening of a previous venue, it's understandable to a degree, that people living locally will have concerns. The majority of the concerns will be honestly made but there will always be the few "professional" moaners who will do everything they can to influence that majority by the spreading of some quite ridiculous tales. At Birmingham, we convinced the City Council to give us a temporary planning consent for a trial period of three years. When the trial period was up, we had to re-apply and inevitably there was a hard core who became more and more desperate in their attempts to block it. Four residents wrote to the Council to say that they could put up with the noise, (they had little choice because the Council's own noise tests showed that the sound of the bikes was inaudible from their houses), but said that the "evil smell of the petrol was making them ill!" We even had people claim that people living several miles away from the stadium were subject to louder noise "because they didn't have the sound of the heavy traffic to drown it" - seriously trying to imply that whilst the noise from a very busy road decreased with distance, the noise from the speedway didn't!

Over the last six years, Birmingham Speedway has received just one complaint - and that was about noise from the tannoy not the bikes.

Although we can never completely eliminate the attentions of the nimbys, I always found that whenever we could have a face to face meeting with local residents, they were invariably reasonable and willing to listen to our point of view - and the biggest mistake that we can make is to try and ridicule what are people's genuine concerns.

If truth were told, the more ridiculous complaints are made the better because it destroys the case against speedway.

Best one I ever heard was about Kent, with someone saying they couldn't sleep for the noise on a particular night.

Unfortunately for them, there was no meeting that night. 

[brianbuck]

That's a very similar story to the early days at Birmingham when a lady living locally read in the Birmingham Mail that we had raced against Rye House one Saturday night so she wrote to the Council to complain about the noise plus the fact that we were in breach of the planning conditions by running on a Saturday night. What she didn't realise, was that we were away at Rye House that particular Saturday night. Naturally, the Council took here complaint as gospel and forwarded her letter to us for our comments. I wrote the lady a polite letter explaining the facts,and pointing out that greyhound racing took place at the stadium every Saturday night,  but she still insisted that she heard the noise - and that it wasn't traffic noise!

It was clear that no matter what anyone tried to tell this lady, she was going to stick it out that we had raced at Perry Barr on that Saturday night, but fortunately for us, her neighbours wouldn't back her up and in time, the Perry Barr locals (apart from the inevitable odd nimby)  became much more reasonable and we now have a good relationship with them.

Edited November 18, 2019 by brianbuck