I read this this morning and I was shocked!!! I checked my emails and found one from Lisa Fox with the same story, but she added a list of the Councilors and the Lord Mayor as well as their email addresses. I quickly composed an email and sent to all, I hope that direct contact via email and expression of our dismay will make a difference. We are after all a legitmate sport with a sports governing body and as I stated in the email we are all Mr. and Mrs. Joe Citizen and we deserve some support in government to help us enjoy our sport of choice.
It maybe too late for Reedy Creek and Stanmore, but what I fear the most is this is only the start of more closures and less viable tracks to ride at. I think we should all do our part by starting to lobby our local and federal politicians to do more for us. I beleive that MA and QMA should be more proactive and aggressive in this area and also the big Bike companies should assist in helping us and themselves or they may find that they will only sell road bikes and scooters in the future.
Please see the email I sent to all GC Councilors and the Loard Mayor, if you send out any emails please remeber you represent a big group of people so no threats, bad language etc...
Lord Mayor and Councillors.
I am very disappointed to hear of the decision to close the facilities at Stanmore and Reedy Creek MX parks without viable alternative sites being offered to the members of these clubs and the general public. I fear that because of this action that the council will have more complaints about bikes being ridden in areas not gazetted for this use as well as an increase of injuries and accidents of riders taking part in this illegal activity.
Both Stanmore and Reedy Creek offered a safe and supervised environment for children, men, women and seniors to enjoy their recreational sport of choice. With the Gold Coast’s growing population and the increase of Motocross’s popularity as well as the increase in the Vintage Motocross I was expecting to see upgrades of these facilities and an increase of similar venues. The recent Pan Pacific Masters Games held on the Gold Coast had Motocross as events for seniors and by all accounts was a very successful and enjoyable event. The Gold Coast has hosted many international motor sport events over the years and are supporters and promoters of these types of sports, so I am shocked that you and the councillors would decide to take this action against a well organised and controlled motor sport.
Chad Reed is one of Australia’s most highest paid and profiled Australian sports stars and is highly ranked in the world standing for motocross, we did not produce this sort of world ranked sportsman by not having facilities to seed this sort of talent in Australia. I would hate to think of a young runner not having the facilities to support his Olympic dreams or have his sport banned because of complaints by others that it impinged on their life styles. At least two of the Australian 2010 VMX Des Nations Team that represented Australia in the United Kingdom uses these facilities.
Our sport is not a cheap sport to enter or to continue in and even though the sport is motorcycle based we are not a group of unemployed, bikies, adrenalin junkies, fools or trouble makers. We are mums and dads, families, engineers, doctors, tradies etc… we are truly representative of a cosmopolitan Australia and we are asking for the same considerations to be given to our sport of choice as you would give any other sporting body, be they a ball based sport or club/racket/bat based sport.
Please take further council on these matters from Motorcycling Australia and Queensland Motorcycling and reconsider your actions and the consequences to the many, many people that are currently members of these clubs and other similar clubs in Qld.
Regards,
Kevin Tomkyns
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