Racing strip denounced

Press, 6 September 1989, Page 6

Racing strip denounced

By

NIGEL MALTHUS

and

NEIL CLARKSON

The attempt of a Christchurch City councillor, Ron Wright, to find an alternative drag strip for the Cass Street drag races has been denounced as nonsense by an independent council candidate, Mr Mike Stevens.

Mr Stevens, who is a candidate in the Burwood Ward, said the majority of residents could not see why the council should fund “hooligans.”

Mr Stevens said that as owner of New Brighton Panelbeaters and SOS Towing, he spoke "with a little knowledge” of both sides of the story. “There are people who have accidents, and people who cause accidents.

“I don’t see why we should be encouraging these idiots in any shape or form,” he said. Efforts by the council, spearheaded by Cr Wright, to find an alternative site came after complaints of vandalism and hooliganism by the mainly teen-age drivers who gathered for unofficial drag race meets in Cass Street on Friday evenings.

Cr Wright last week proposed a site on railway land by Ensors Road, but said on Monday that after representations from Opawa residents he would not pursue that particular site.

Mr Stevens called for the whole idea to be dropped, and for those who broke the law to be punished, not encouraged.

Unofficial street racing happened in spasms over the years, he said. Someone would end up killed, said Mr Stevens. Cr Wright rejected Mr Stevens’ criticism.

“I’m not condoning what they do. I am acting as a catalyst to get them off the street and organise themselves into a group.

“I am disappointed that he (Mr Stevens) did not have the courtesy to ring me personally so I could have explained to him the situation and put him in touch with the correct facts.”

Cr Wright said council staff had estimated the cost of the necessary seal for the racers to be $20,000.

It was not intended that the council would meet the cost, he said. The council may be asked to put money towards the project, but this would have to be paid back either through sponsorship or by charging admission to the racers’ site, said Cr Wright.

“The council and ratepayers are not going to pay for this.” Ignoring the problem did not make it go away, said Cr Wright.

“Whatever we do will go some way towards relieving the pressure on the streets of Christchurch, not just in Cass Street. They have other places where they carry out their activity.” Putting pressure on the racers would simply move the problem to another part of town, he said. A meeting scheduled for yesterday morning with representatives of the racers was postponed until tomorrow morning. Cr Wright said one of the racers’ key representatives had an unavoidable commitment.