Government grant helps speedway opponents

Auckland residents fighting the Western Springs speedway through the courts have received $30,000 of taxpayers' money towards their legal bill.

The Springs Stadium Residents Association and an expert witness received the funds in June last year from a Government fund set up to help groups take cases to the Environment Court.

News of the grant yesterday upset Auckland Mayor Dick Hubbard, who said it was not good use of the money.

The Environment Ministry legal assistance fund offers up to $30,000 to non-profit groups that might be fighting cases that protect or enhance environmental qualities or affect the wider community.

A sum of $28,687.50 was allocated in July to be paid to the group's lawyer and an expert witness on noise after the group applied in May.

Ministry deputy chief executive Lindsay Gow said the case complied with the fund's criteria.

The case was an environmental issue and the affected group was large enough for it to be in the public interest.

"The ministry doesn't make any judgment on a case - we don't judge whether they're right or wrong," Mr Gow said.

Springs Speedway promoter Dave Stewart said he was concerned the group's application contained a lot of misleading information that was not backed up by factual evidence.

"All we're really concerned about is that the ministry has been conned," Mr Stewart said. "These people have had scant concern for the truth."

He said the residents claim Western Springs Speedway was the only inner-city speedway left in the world and that the vehicles run on aviation fuel, both of which are untrue.

Mr Stewart cited the speedway in Palmerston North and the world-renowned Indianapolis as inner-city tracks and also said the vehicles use methanol, a biproduct of vegetable waste.

"They haven't represented their case truthfully," he said.

Residents association lawyer Martin Williams would not comment on the funding.

He said his clients had given him instructions not to discuss it with the media.

Auckland City Mayor Dick Hubbard said the funding was "quite inappropriate" and he did not believe the residents group qualified.

"This is not an environmental matter in my opinion," Mr Hubbard said.

"I certainly wasn't aware that the residents had $30,000 in their back pocket during last year's discussions.

"I would have thought there would have been much more pressing cases than this for de facto legal aid."

Last week Justice Tony Randerson reserved his decision in the High Court case on whether existing use rights were taken into account when an 85-decibel limit was set in 1998.

The Environment Court ruled in the residents' favour for the speedway to comply with noise limits last December.

The Auckland City Council has thrown its support behind the speedway, with the mayor saying yesterday that the council had made a commitment to the people of Auckland to keep the speedway running.