Birmingham Wheels

[steve roberts]

47 minutes ago, uk_martin said:

The council is a political animal made up of politicians with only short-term tenures on their positions. Given a choice of working for the local community who can vote you in or out of a job, or another nebulous community of leisure and pleasure seekers who are scattered all over the place, guess what a politician is going to do?

Ultimately Wheels is a great facility, in the wrong place at the wrong time. When it was created it converted a larger derelict area into something that served a purpose. But sadly, that innings is now over. And with carbon footprints coming under scrutiny, having a motorsport facility very near to a Clean Air Zone isn't consistent with council policy either.

All I can say is that thank goodness the council in Oxford viewed Cowley as a leisure amenity and stepped in when it was so nearly lost to developers.

[heathen52]

3 hours ago, steve roberts said:

All I can say is that thank goodness the council in Oxford viewed Cowley as a leisure amenity and stepped in when it was so nearly lost to developers.

Beware the owners of the site are in my opinion playing a long game, in that they are hoping the Stadium will eventually become unviable thus helping there long term aim of developing the site, so as long as the Stadium stays financially viable you are safe, good luck and long may Speedway continue at Oxford.

[steve roberts]

27 minutes ago, heathen52 said:

Beware the owners of the site are in my opinion playing a long game, in that they are hoping the Stadium will eventually become unviable thus helping there long term aim of developing the site, so as long as the Stadium stays financially viable you are safe, good luck and long may Speedway continue at Oxford.

Yes it's a delicate situation and it's up to the folk of Oxford to support the venture but at least with the council supporting the stadium is half the battle...but, of course, that could quickly change.

[OGT]

On 7/2/2022 at 6:35 PM, brianbuck said:

Speedway at Birmingham Wheels was unsuccessful during the three seasons of its operations there. There were many reasons for this, most of them being out of the control of Birmingham Speedway. The place was in its complete infancy, getting there was difficult and not very safe with no entrance via the main Bordesley Green Road, only via a dark and dismal lengthy back street (Landor Street) and approached through an unlit railway tunnel. The spectator facilities there were non-existant and what little spectator comforts were minimal.

Sharing the track with banger cars was a disaster. This is possible at some existing stadia I know, but at the Wheels Park, the banger cars used it daily so preparation of the track for speedway meetings was virtually impossible. Even so, despite the problems, the track was a very good shape and before the cars wrecked it, produced some very good racing, and for all it's primitiveness, spectator viewing was very good.

The speedway venture ended when at the instigation of the new Wheels Park Manager, an application to extend planning permission to beyond those first three seasons, was arbitrarily withdrawn, so Tony Mole who had just purchased the speedway rights, wasn't able to continue even though he was prepared to do so. Later attempts to get back into the Wheels Park using a different, unused part of the site to constructed a new exclusive for  speedway track, were blocked by the same Wheels Park Manager.

Could speedway have re-established itself there? I think it could have. We could have had our own track and used it for training as well as public meetings, and now that there is the access to the site from the main road, we could have capitalised on the fact that it is now on several bus routes, and that Adderley Park Rail Station is close by. The Wheels Park is still located in one of the less glamourous parts of the City it is true, so it might have been a long slow haul to get the club back on it's feet, but I always thought the place had possibilities.

Now it seems that the City Council are looking for ways of recovering some of the massive debts it has run up in its efforts to promote the Commonwealth Games, and are trying to reclaim and re-sell the land on which the Wheels Park is situated. All the hard work which has gone into building a popular and well used operation from very small beginnings, will be wasted if they succeed, and I wish the group who are challenging this truly outrageous plan, every possible success in their opposition, and will be happy to help in any way if I can.

Wasn't there plans for a national speedway museum on the site too, Brian?

Incidentally, I went there about 4 years ago for a stox meeting and it hadn't changed a bit since the speedway closed in 86. 

Edited July 5, 2022 by OGT

[singy13]

On 7/1/2022 at 10:44 PM, Dave Goddard said:

Without Birmingham Wheels, put simply, I would not have a career.  I did my first ever commentaries on the stock cars there and spent just about every Saturday evening of my 20s there.

Sure miss ya marra.................