TROTTING Major Development Plan At Kaikoura

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31988, 15 May 1969, Page 5

TROTTING Major Development Plan At Kaikoura

The Kaikoura Trotting Club is formulating a proposal to turn the Kaikoura Domain into an arena catering for a wide range of outdoor and indoor sports. ’ . \

Development of the domain, which is at present used exclusively for trotting and for the activities of the local A. and P. Association, might cost up to $150,000. The domain, which runs along the seashore beside South Bay, is leased by the trotting club from the Kaikoura Domain Board, which is comprised of the members of the Kaikoura County Council. The five-furlong, all-weather track created by the trotting club on the domain is one of the fastest in the South Island. But facilities for the public, as the" committee of the club will be first to admit, are not good. The totalisator building, and the buildings housing the secretary’s office, drivers’ room, stipendiary stewards’ room and so on, are considered to be near the end of their useful life. And there is no public grandstand. The club has sufficient capital set aside to attract mortgage finance to build new amenities, but because the land is not freehold, loan money is impossible to obtain.

Repeated attempts by the club to freehold the domain have met with steadfast refusal even to consider the matter from the Kaikoura County Council. Without the firm support of the local authority, any approach to the Lands and Survey Department or the Minister of Lands would be doomed to failure.

Faced frith these the club committee, it. 'i, series of meetings held,, last; week-end, came up with the i plan to hive thedqmatn des veloped as agenertil sport* area. ' x. . The domain abounds'iir natural attractions. 3t: -4s| bounded on the one side by the sea and bn the other, by a hill which could he developed into a.magnificent natural grandstand:' v- « The building' of i pinli stand containing totalisator and members’ facilitiea and which couldbe used throughout the year for such Indoor sports a* bowls, darts, and table tennis, |s envisaged. ; The area inside the track might be developed to provide grounds for Rugby, soeCer or hockey, or to provide

fetmU courts or a cricket a< This might be achieved, the dub considers, as a joint venture involving the local 1 authority, the domain board, the Government and sporting bodies.. : With the scheme adnatttistered by the county council, sources of finance could be available Which are not availabieto the club, and the result would be a facility from which the entire district would benefit . Representatives of the club committee, headed by the president (Mr T. H. Rainey), Will soon approach the county council to discuss the proporals. In the meantime, a local artiBtwiU.be commissioned to prepare a sketch plan of the proposed development.