A racecourse that we MUST rescue
I’D LIKe to stir the dying embers of the debate over the fate of Kempton Park racecourse in Surrey, which owners, the Jockey Club, announced plans at the start of 2017 to sell to housing developers. Despite a lot of initial opposition from the racing industry and nearby residents, the Jockey Club has said it still intends to go ahead, although a planning application has yet to be submitted to Spelthorne Borough Council. Perhaps the Jockey Club is biding its time on the basis that everyone will get used to the idea eventually and they can execute their plans through the back door. Kempton Park is on London’s doorstep and is effectively the capital’s last remaining racecourse providing quality all-year-round horse racing including National hunt and All Weather. The fact that it was classified Green Belt land in 1956 means that the racecourse should not be under any threat at all. It is, therefore, a major worry for conservationists and racegoers alike that the Jockey Club thinks it can get that classification overturned. The Jockey Club, which was set up, paradoxically, as a non-profit organisation to safeguard and advance horse racing, has said it has to sell off Kempton to pay off accumulated debts of £115 million. Selling Kempton for housing development is expected to bring in far more than this figure and, with the surplus, it would redevelop nearby Sandown racecourse and build an all-weather track at Newmarket. This is bunkum. Sandown does not need redevelopment as it’s already a top facility — and no one wants an allweather course at Newmarket because there is already one called Chelmsford City just down the road. The Jockey Club just needs to balance its books and it could do this by selling Kempton to another racecourse consortium, which would retain its use or just hive off parts of the large site for housing development as other racecourses have done, such as Newbury. Perhaps all the extra millions it could make from any complete redevelopment have gone to the Jockey Club’s head.
PauL FiSh, West ealing, middlesex.