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The ACT authorities has ready for a future with out horse racing, drawing up plans to construct housing on Canberra’s solely racecourse.
Key factors:
- A draft plan canvasses demolishing Thoroughbred Park to construct extra housing
- The ACT authorities says it is as much as the racing business to resolve how a lot land to develop and promote
- The ACT has already banned greyhound racing, and the Greens wish to finish all public funding for horse-racing
Nevertheless, Chief Minister Andrew Barr says he has no intention to finish the game within the ACT — he says the plan is solely an possibility.
The federal government launched a draft improvement technique for the town’s internal north on certainly one of racing’s largest days, Melbourne Cup Day.
It included two choices for Thoroughbred Park’s future: one is popping among the website into properties and retailers, the opposite is growing all of it and scrapping the race observe within the course of.
The opposition Liberal Celebration mentioned the timing was disgraceful.
Its racing spokesman, Mark Parton, mentioned the Canberra Racing Membership was “utterly blindsided by this when they’re busy placing on a Melbourne Cup race day”.
The membership — which desires to develop among the land — agreed the doc was “an enormous shock”.
Its chief government, Darren Pearce, mentioned it was “akin to being at an AGM and having a hostile takeover of your organization”.
Nevertheless, he added that the primary possibility within the plan was “very carefully aligned to our grasp plan”.
“Let me be unequivocal about this: We’re not property builders on the expense of the racing group,” Mr Pearce mentioned.
“We’re trying to develop the excess land on the perimeter of the race observe, to offer us a capital base to reinvest in what we will do for our members, for the group and to enhance horse welfare.”
‘Not a plan to finish racing’
The federal government had been working with the racing membership for two-and-a-half years to discover a higher approach to make use of the land.
Nevertheless, Planning Minister Mick Gentleman acknowledged the draft doc might need caught the racing group off guard.
The choice the membership helps entails including low and high-density housing, and a few parks and different facilities.
However, the surprising possibility — during which the racecourse is demolished — permits for a lot of extra dwellings and improvement in what’s a sought-after space near gentle rail and Canberra’s centre.
Mr Barr mentioned it was as much as Thoroughbred Park to resolve how a lot or little improvement it needed.
“I’ve clearly outlined the federal government’s curiosity in working with the racing membership on redevelopments that may contain extra housing,” he mentioned.
“I think about they’ll wish to decide on that website and construct round it.
“I hope they can even accommodate the wants of the [Canberra] Harness Racing Membership and produce that into the precinct as effectively, which is able to then liberate house in Exhibition Park.”
In an announcement, the federal government mentioned it had signed a five-year settlement with the racing membership earlier this 12 months, and the technique was “not a plan to finish horse racing”.
“The racetrack will stay on the present website in Lyneham for so long as Canberra Thoroughbred Membership want to keep there.”
Questions stay over sport’s future
In 2018, the ACT turned the one Australian jurisdiction to ban greyhound racing.
Nevertheless, whereas the territory’s two governing events — Labor and the Greens — had been united on that ban, they’re now divided on the way forward for horse racing.
The Greens wish to withdraw finances help from the game, arguing it’s merciless and encourages playing.
Its planning spokeswoman, Jo Clay, mentioned taxpayers ought to now not prop the game up.
“We have spent and pledged [more than] $100 million within the final 10 years, and we do not suppose that may be a good use of public funds,” she mentioned.
Some folks in Canberra’s horse-racing business have struggled financially in recent times.
They hope their sport won’t go the way in which of the canine.
Racing coach Nick Olive had labored at Thoroughbred Park for 20 years earlier than he was “pressured to maneuver to Queanbeyan”, throughout the New South Wales border, “as a result of my enterprise turned unsustainable in Canberra”.
He attributed the ACT’s issues to rising prices and different elements, warning there was “a number of work forward” if the business had been to outlive.
“We have to have the federal government on aspect,” Mr Olive mentioned.
“Though I am not in Canberra now, I do not wish to see Canberra go with out racing.
“There is no state in Australia that does not have a racecourse. It is be unhappy if the capital metropolis of Australia was the primary one.”
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