Folkestone and Hereford being closed down!

[Posts: 695Joined: 17 Mar 2011, 09:26]

Horrible news for both tracks. And if they go for housing developments they can never be recovered. Sad day for racing.

[Posts: 1050Joined: 13 Dec 2008, 08:29Location: Hereford]

It will be a real shame if Hereford racecourse is gone forever. There is a good following here for the course and national hunt racing. Hereford is always well attended and lots of people from all walks of life get involved. We're a small county by population anyway and there isn't a lot to do as it is, the council is run by idiots who haven't a clue quite frankly. No doubt housing plans will be to accommodate a few more thousand Bulgarians

[Posts: 1536Joined: 31 May 2004, 16:59Location: Warwick]

I hope I'm not being fanciful saying this, but I'm not sure if I totally believe this news.

Reading between the lines (and I am by no means fully au fait with their respective situations) it seems that both courses have what could be described as 'council problems'.

Any chance that this is just a game of chicken? If so, I wonder who blinks first?

But I might be talking rubbish.

Mike

[Posts: 4490Joined: 03 Sep 2007, 22:56Location: Milton Keynes]

I hope I'm not being fanciful saying this, but I'm not sure if I totally believe this news.

Reading between the lines (and I am by no means fully au fait with their respective situations) it seems that both courses have what could be described as 'council problems'.

Any chance that this is just a game of chicken? If so, I wonder who blinks first?

Mike

Cynic that I am the same thought crossed my mind

[Posts: 4159Joined: 20 Jan 2006, 11:28Location: The Ainsty of York]

Agreed Betlarge, the RP missive certainly doesn't read as an unequivocal 'will shut, will be a housing estate this time next year' more a kick up the Councils' jacksies with a veiled threat

That apart, it can only have only been a matter of time until the dread word 'closure' was uttered, and that time has now arrived.

[Posts: 103Joined: 18 Dec 2002, 21:54]

Every racecourse has its passionate defenders - even the end of NH racing at Windsor and Nottingham attracted a storm of protest - but racecourses are ultimately businesses.

We see them busy on racedays and assume they are making money but what about the vast number of non-race days? IF courses can't make those days pay, the racedays won't matter.

I suspect it is the failure of courses to attract business on non-race days that is a factor here along with the potential for residential redevelopment.

Local Councils are under huge pressure to provide additional housing and have been allocated "quotas" of new homes they have to get built. With the Green Belt often very close to existing boundaries, the alternative is brownfield sites such as racecourses. IF the Council approves outline planning permission for residential development, the value of the land raises considerably.

[Posts: 2267Joined: 08 Sep 2005, 16:22]

I hope I'm not being fanciful saying this, but I'm not sure if I totally believe this news.

Reading between the lines (and I am by no means fully au fait with their respective situations) it seems that both courses have what could be described as 'council problems'.

Any chance that this is just a game of chicken? If so, I wonder who blinks first?

But I might be talking rubbish.

Mike

The Folkestone proposal included almost 1000 new homes and a school, I'm sure the brothers whose main interest these days is making money from property and real estate would rather have a lossmaking racecourse than another billion or few in profit from housing

It's not just the ongoing depression that will do for racecourses, the brothers may have acquired so many raccourses purely for the best interests of racing but they may also forsee a bleak future for racing and have seen an opportunity to get in on untold billions worth of prime land.

Thin end of the wedge in my opinion, reminds me of when a property developer bought Maidstone and other football clubs, those grounds swiftly became houses.

[Posts: 728Joined: 09 Jan 2011, 14:48]

114 years of racing at Folkestone and 241 years at Hereford swiftly dismantled for the sake of making even more money for the Reuben Brothers who already have more money than they could possibly spend in a hundred lifetimes.

What a soulless and sickening lack of respect these people have for heritage.

[Posts: 2267Joined: 08 Sep 2005, 16:22]

114 years of racing at Folkestone and 241 years at Hereford swiftly dismantled for the sake of making even more money for the Reuben Brothers who already have more money than they could possibly spend in a hundred lifetimes.

What a soulless and sickening lack of respect these people have for heritage.

Given a choice between an occasionally used racetrack which exists to encourage gambling and it's heritage or a thousand new homes, I wonder what 99 out of 100 joe/joanne publics would vote for?

What is morally better, racecourses or homes?

After all, with the FOBT discussion it's clear we should be protecting people who cannot control their gambling.

Thin end of the wedge I think, this depression isn't halfway in yet and racing is slap in the danger zone.

Shame about Folkestone, only Lingfield left now.

[Posts: 2032Joined: 06 Jun 2011, 14:34Location: Bury St Edmunds]

If one is brutally honest about the median quality of animal seen at Folkestone and its proximity to the Eurotunnel one might ask how many of these animals return to stables and how many are dispatched to Europe for an alternative "career".
The closure of the courses seems to make little sense if there is no reduction in the number of races. There is an unsustainable racehorse population that needs to be reduced by a more sensible worldwide breeding programme. Until breeders start shipping money then over-production of horses will continue. The fact that a large proportion of horses racing in this country are not bred here does very little good for the country's economy.

[Posts: 728Joined: 09 Jan 2011, 14:48]

Neither Folkestone nor Hereford are densely populated areas and a quick glance at google satellite images shows unused land aplenty (greenbelt or otherwise). If there was an underused racecourse slap bang in the middle of an urban area with severe homelessness issues then morality would be a legitimate issue.

Unless the land is being used to develop shelters, hostels and rehabilitation centres for the homeless and vulnerable of Herefordshire and Kent, this is shallow opportunism at its most cynical.

[Posts: 103Joined: 18 Dec 2002, 21:54]

Neither Folkestone nor Hereford are densely populated areas and a quick glance at google satellite images shows unused land aplenty (greenbelt or otherwise). If there was an underused racecourse slap bang in the middle of an urban area with severe homelessness issues then morality would be a legitimate issue.

With respect, none of that matters. The point is that there is huge pressure from the Government to get more homes built in the south and south-east in particular. Plans for substantial residential redevelopment are going to be looked on more sympathetically now than would have been the case three or four years ago.

The fact this has been announced does smack of cynical opportunism, I agree, but the fact is that the same demands on land for housing that killed off Hurst Park, Manchester and Birmingham in the 1960s are at work today.

[Posts: 1536Joined: 31 May 2004, 16:59Location: Warwick]

Cornelius Lysaght on Twitter (just announced on ATR):

Herefordshire council 'deeply regrets' closure; says only heard at midday; 'willing to discuss options for continuation'

Mike