Anger as popular races to end at Cornwall track
POPULAR stock car and banger racing events will stop at United Downs in Cornwall this month after 50 years despite plans to build a rum distillery on the site being refused last week.
Fans and organisers of stock car racing have campaigned against the building of a rum cask maturation facility and visitor centre by Cornish Geothermal Distillery Company (CGDC) on the Cornwall Councilowned land, which is currently leased to Purple Cornwall Ltd which promotes events at the track under the name Autospeed.
Almost 9,000 people have signed a petition to save the raceway.
Cornwall Council planners refused permission for a maturation biome, geothermal energy centre and visitor centre including shop,
Work together so that we can get an extension of something which is a great community asset CLLR DAVID HARRIS
cafe and bar on the land on October 14.
However, racing will still have to stop as the distillery company has a Cornwall Council-sanctioned agreement to lease the land despite not now being able to build on it.
Crispen Rosevear, of Purple Cornwall Ltd, said: “In November 2020 the planning department told me that the distillery would be given a lease conditional on planning approval. In August the council said our lease ends on October 31 with the distillery having the rights to the site from November 1 – a site which they can’t do anything with now because planning has been refused.
“In April 2021, an application was registered with the council which recognised the raceway as an asset of community value. The point I continually make is that the previous administration, prior to the election in May, agreed to lease a community asset to something which is no longer for the community, which seems a complete paradox.”
He added: “The previous Cornwall Council administration were the ones to oversee this mess. The new administration have been very supportive of United Downs Raceway.”
Cornwall Council’s deputy leader David Harris said at last week’s full council meeting: “I think it is daft and silly and I would encourage both our officers and the proposed rum distillery to work together so that we can get an extension of something which I know is a great community asset and is well used, not just in the local area, but in a much wider area.”
The stadium was built in 1962 as a go-kart track and was converted into a stock car racing track seven years later. Since 2001, Autospeed has been using the facilities for its hugely popular banger racing meetings.
This Sunday, October 24, will see the last ever stock car meeting at 1pm, with the last banger meeting a week later at noon on Sunday, October 31.
One fan wrote on Facebook: “October 31 is going to be a truly sad day in South West motor sport, the end of an era, hopefully drivers from over the years will attend to say goodbye to a track that has been part of so many lives over the years.”
Mr Rosevear told WMN sister website CornwallLive: “I’m very hopeful that there will be more racing, but all the official paperwork says we have to finish on October 31. I’m hoping common sense will prevail and Cornwall Council stops the lease application the previous council signed now that the distillery is not happening.”
The Cornish Geothermal Distillery Company (CGDC) – founded by helicopter pilot Matt Clifford – wanted to construct a futuristic biome which would harness excess energy from the UK’s first geothermal plant built nearby and mature rum in temperature-controlled pods which would mimic the Caribbean’s tropical conditions.
CGDC has been approached for a statement concerning the planning refusal and if the company will appeal or has plans for the site.