V8 race consent hearings adjourned

By BERNARD ORSMAN

The V8 supercar resource consent hearings have been adjourned to give the warring factions a fresh opportunity to work around potential traffic and other problems.

The surprise move came after the national road agency Transit and the Auckland Regional Council asked the three independent commissioners to adjourn the hearings until more investigations were done on coping with the effects of the race.

It also followed legal moves by Auckland City Council and the race promoter, IMG, whose application to hold the V8 car race for seven years from 2006 has faced a barrage of criticism during six days of hearings.

Transit said the applicants' traffic information was seriously deficient.

A lawyer for the applicants, Malcolm Maclean, had no comment on the adjournment but Auckland City Mayor John Banks, who has not attended any of the hearings, has said completing a detailed traffic management plan before gaining consent was lunacy, would cost $500,000 to $600,000 and set a dangerous precedent.

At the end of submissions yesterday, chief commissioner David McGregor adjourned the hearing to provide breathing space for the commissioners and the applicants to consider whether more work should be done.

Mr McGregor said the commissioners would decide if they wanted more work done and, if so, give the council and IMG the opportunity to do the work. The hearings heard on Wednesday that a detailed traffic management plan would take up to two months.

Mr McGregor said if the applicants agreed to do more work, a process would be set up to involve submitters and hold a "mini hearing". If not, the commissioners would make a decision on the application on the basis of the information before them.

Earlier, the Street Race Supporters Club said the antipodean phenomenon of Falcon-Commodore rivalry ensured high attendances at V8 events in Australia and New Zealand, as well as a big television audience.

Russell Bartlett, a lawyer for the club, said there was a sense of negativity on the part of those who were committed to stopping the event rather than finding ways of making it happen.

But like other motor racing events, such as the Gold Coast Indy 300 and Monaco Formula 1, "people know and people adapt, just as the ducks know when it is May 1 and time to adjust their travel plans", he said.

Club spokesman Klaus Sorenson said car races tended to polarise people but he believed that Aucklanders would change their ways and embrace the event.

Mr McGregor said he had a degree of sympathy with the view that the event polarised the community but it also raised difficult problems which the commissioners had to be satisfied could be mitigated, otherwise the event would be an absolute disaster, not just for Auckland but for motor racing.

The final day of hearings heard from two businesses who said they would be financially hurt by the event.

Lloyd Klee said road closures leading to his marine equipment company near the race track would cost $65,000 in lost turnover during the seven years of the race.

The owner of Victoria Park New World supermarket, Robert McGregor, said he would "conservatively" lose $7 million over the seven years.

The commissioners

* The three independent commissioners were appointed by Auckland City Council's Regulatory and Fixtures Subcommittee, which meets each week to appoint commissioners for various hearings.

* The subcommittee members are councillors Juliet Yates, Graeme Mulholland and Bill Christian.

* David McGregor is a partner at law firm Bell Gully. He specialises in central and local government relations and resource management. He is also a primary legal adviser to the Auckland Regional Council.

* Gordon Macfarlane was a city planner for Auckland City Council for more than 20 years.

* Ross Gee was chief planner for the former Auckland Harbour Board.