Kerre Woodham: Shame on speedway whingers

And so it has come to this. Thanks to a petition from a handful of residents - 70-odd from 23 households - the Western Springs Speedway, an Auckland institution for 75 years, looks set to be shut down.

The petitioners, the vast majority of whom only recently swanned into the area, have decided that their Friday and Saturday nights are far more important than the pleasure of thousands of speedway fans and have used the machinery of bureaucracy effectively to inflict their will on the community.

It doesn't seem to matter that the majority of Grey Lynn and Western Springs residents support the continuation of the speedway. The marchers and the messages of support came too late. And don't believe the crocodile tears of the councillors.

Hucker supports the speedway? Like the billboard says, Yeah. Right!

Blame can be allocated all round. To the solipsistic arrivistes whose intolerance and prejudice looks set to bring an end to an Auckland institution, shame on you.

To the speedway promoters and fans, who assumed that she'd be right, never underestimate the power of a committed group of lobbyists with time on their hands and a working knowledge of the statute books.

To the council, who have failed to protect the speedway and who have done far too little, far too late, yet another failure and yet another example of the tail wagging the dog.

Could everyone who hates noise, large groups of people and fun and who lacks the ability to rub along with their fellow man please bugger off to the West Coast?

On second thoughts, why inflict these people on the Coasters? They're the sort of people that will sweep into the area and within a year, they'll have shut down the Wild Food Festival and replaced it with a Placid Tofu Commemoration.