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RYE HOUSE


hammer1969

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I just received an email, probably along with many other people, from East Herts Council that the planning application to turn Rye House into a community leisure and sports hub and also for retrospective removal of the speedway track has today been refused.

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39 minutes ago, hammer1969 said:

I just received an email, probably along with many other people, from East Herts Council that the planning application to turn Rye House into a community leisure and sports hub and also for retrospective removal of the speedway track has today been refused.

That's encouraging

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Just the section of the report relevant to speedway, my underlining!
 

‘The application site did house a Speedway Track and associated stands. The Speedway track has subsequently been removed from the site, with works starting to remove this in approximately the year 2020. The application proposes the replacement of this speedway track with a football pitch. A new football changing and clubhouse is proposed, alongside a dance studio, hospitality building, gymnastics building and gyms.

With regards to policy CFLR1, the proposal does not result in the loss or reduction of open space, indoor or outdoor sport and recreation facilities. Whilst the Speedway track is lost, this is replaced by other outdoor and indoor sports and recreation facilities of a greater scale. As such, it is the officer’s view that there would likely be an increase in the level of sport and recreation facilities on site.

It is the case that the Council would have had no control to require the speedway track to be re-provided and opened to the public. The Council would have no planning policy ground to insist that the specified sport and recreation facilities on site remain for Speedway Racing. The proposal is for a number of alternative new indoor and outdoor sport and recreation facilities on the site, providing replacement facilities on site, albeit for a variety of different sports.

Sports England have been consulted on the proposal and raise no objection.

Whilst the proposal does result in the loss of the speedway track, it provides new facilities for indoor and outdoor sport. As such the proposal is not considered to fall contrary to policy CFLR1 with regards to sports facilities.’

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1 hour ago, Deano said:

Can you elaborate please? I can’t find it.

I managed to find it after a lot of searching that wasn't easy and there are 32 pages of it and too much for me to read and take in but the words  " inappropriate use within the green belt" kept popping up and buildings that were put up but didn't conform to the original plans that the council agreed to.   I've pasted the Conclusion below.  I would add that although the Council cannot force the speedway to be re-instated I would assume that as it had operated there for many years if someone came along who wants to re-instate it I don't see how the Council could object as they never tried to have it shut it down in the past.

 

Conclusion
To conclude the application amounts to inappropriate development in the Green Belt.
Further to the harm by inappropriateness, the proposal would provide further harm to the
openness of the Green Belt. No very special circumstances exist to outweigh this harm.
Furthermore, the proposal is not considered to be within a sustainable location due to the
reliance on private vehicles to access the site and the lack of any offer to provide highway
improvement works as part of the scheme. The design of the scheme is considered
unacceptable due to the level and style of the hardstanding and fencing proposed and due to
the lack of any meaningful soft landscaping, the proposal provides insufficient justification for
the level of vehicle parking, disabled parking and cycle storage on site, the proposal is
considered unacceptable with regards to flood risk, drainage and the impact on the river and
insufficient and conflicting information has been provided to demonstrate a biodiversity net
gain on site or to demonstrate compliance with climate change and water resource policies.
In accordance with the above, it is recommended that permission is refused.

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:-(

No room for speedway on that site again then  ...." replaced by other outdoor and indoor sports and recreation facilities of a greater scale." 

 

The owners of the site don't have to accommodate speedway just because it used to be there ...... hard to see how a speedway track would fit in with all these new outdoor and indoor sports facilities.

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1 hour ago, old bob at herne bay said:

:-(

No room for speedway on that site again then  ...." replaced by other outdoor and indoor sports and recreation facilities of a greater scale." 

 

The owners of the site don't have to accommodate speedway just because it used to be there ...... hard to see how a speedway track would fit in with all these new outdoor and indoor sports facilities.

But the question that someone needs to ask East Herts Council is "are you now going to take action against the owners/leaseholders of Rye House who have quite clearly put buildings on the site that do not conform to the plans passed by the Council?"  In other words make them remove them or adjust them to comply with the plans they passed.

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On 10/1/2023 at 2:07 PM, old bob at herne bay said:

:-(

No room for speedway on that site again then  ...." replaced by other outdoor and indoor sports and recreation facilities of a greater scale." 

 

The owners of the site don't have to accommodate speedway just because it used to be there ...... hard to see how a speedway track would fit in with all these new outdoor and indoor sports facilities.

It’s unlikely that the site owners want speedway back. They’ve got tenants there that certainly wouldn’t.

it’s all a bit academic, at the end of the day the cost to revive speedway at Rye House would be so huge it will take a Euro Millions big jackpot winner being a Rockets fan to to make it happen.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 10/4/2023 at 3:51 PM, winstoncigar said:

It’s unlikely that the site owners want speedway back. They’ve got tenants there that certainly wouldn’t.

it’s all a bit academic, at the end of the day the cost to revive speedway at Rye House would be so huge it will take a Euro Millions big jackpot winner being a Rockets fan to to make it happen.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Through their own stupidity & disregard for planning laws, the leaseholders have put themselves in between a rock & a hard place.

Can they afford to wait another couple of years of appeal processes or new plans which may never get through?

They must have spunked enough money buying the lease & doing the illegal building work already with only a little bit of rent coming in from the gym & gymnastics club.

They have come across as Mickey Mouse the plans they put forward at the start of the planning application & have pissed off the council by extending buildings etc.

Can they afford to turn down £40k a year from the speedway? The track could be restored in a couple of months & give them an income fairly quickly.

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I suspect the gym and gymnastics club generate more income for the leaseholders than speedway would and can’t see how they could all work together especially as the leaseholders would appear to have an active dislike for ‘dirty’ speedway.

There’s a reason why Uncle Len didn’t sell to the present tenants.

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Slightly off tangent but whilst on the NYMR last week I spoke to a passenger who was from Hoddesdon and was very aware of Rye House and the present situation and on discussion found out that his great Uncle is Clive Hitch (who is still with us) and son Martin who both rode speedway...I remember watching Clive when riding for the "Robins".

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On 10/29/2023 at 9:07 AM, winstoncigar said:

I suspect the gym and gymnastics club generate more income for the leaseholders than speedway would and can’t see how they could all work together especially as the leaseholders would appear to have an active dislike for ‘dirty’ speedway.

There’s a reason why Uncle Len didn’t sell to the present tenants.

Uncle Len has to take a huge amount of responsibility for the closure of the club. Selling to BMR was a shocking decision. Had no idea about the sport & ended up going bankrupt a couple of years later. Warren Scott managed to transfer all his assets over to his wife before that though. 

Interesting that the council are now going to take enforcement action at the Stadium regarding the illegal building work. They may have to pull down the extension they put on the old stand/gymnasium & a load of the fencing.

As with Peterborough & AEPG, I think eventually C&B are going to have to come back to the negotiating table with Rye Action Group or a speedway promoter if they want to do anything with that land. How long can they continue to be stubborn for?

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Uncle Len should take a lot of credit for the running of Rye House speedway over the years and to hold him any way responsible for what happened since in my opinion is wrong.

On that score at almost every venue that has changed hands and subsequently closed to speedway over the years, you could blame the previous owners and hold them responsible,why single out Len.
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I think initially rye house was taken over by BMR with good intentions, I know for a fact Warren certainly had enough money. It's a real pity it's closed as there was always a good atmosphere and the racing was exciting , plus a few characters about the place. Makes you wonder what happened to the likes of Steve Naylor and others like Webby etc . 

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16 hours ago, ONTWOMINUTES said:

I think initially rye house was taken over by BMR with good intentions, I know for a fact Warren certainly had enough money. It's a real pity it's closed as there was always a good atmosphere and the racing was exciting , plus a few characters about the place. Makes you wonder what happened to the likes of Steve Naylor and others like Webby etc . 

BMR acquired Rye House from Len with the club in considerable debt. Their plan to make it a then top league club back fired when they overspent considerably on track improvements and then the loss of Saturday night racing. 

It didn’t seem good enough for BMR to remain a championship club and grow they wanted it now!
Scott should have stuck to car racing and I believe that also went pop something later.

 

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