Stratford Park targets car and horse plans
Money is being sought to build two large all-weather horse arenas as part of the Stratford Park project, but it’s horsepower action of another sort coming up.
The Stratford showgrounds will come alive with revving engines on Saturday, April 20, for the 2024 Autocity MotorFest, with an extensive display of cars, bikes and trucks, live entertainment, loads of free and cheap activities for kids and an array of stalls and food carts.
A swap meet was planned for car enthusiasts to sell unused or unwanted items, and there would be demonstrations of vintage speedway, four-wheel-drives and military vehicles, and firefighters cutting up a car.
Project manager Tracey Blake said more than 50 hot rods, and vehicles from ”pretty much every car club in Taranaki“had been booked in.
”There will be several hundred cars on display,“she said
“For every car enthusiast, there’s literally something for everyone, and for those who fancy a day listening to great music, eating great food with good friends sounds like them, well this is your day, too.”
The event is a fundraiser for the Taranaki Motorsport Facility Charitable Trust, which is developing a motorsports facility that will include circuit racing, a drag strip, a car museum, gravel sprints and driver training.
It is part of the estimated $75 million Stratford Park project that will see a motorsport, equestrian, showgrounds, education and concert venue being developed over the next decades.
It was first mooted in December 2016 and got a boost when the Stratford District Council agreed to loan it $7m to buy land adjoining the existing facilities.
On the equestrian side of the project, funding is now being sought for the construction of two indoor horse arenas which will provide an all-weather riding and training facility on the equestrian land on the north side of the showgrounds.
The arenas themselves would cost about $1million, with the other facilities and infrastructure to set up the entire equestrian site costed at between $3 million and $4m, she said.
The trust was also hoping to raise money to buy some concrete and mesh safety barriers from Pukekohe Park, which ceased hosting motorsports last year, and was asking businesses to sponsor a section, which they can have advertising on.
It was also planning to build a portable toilet block that could be moved around the whole site to where events were being held.
Meanwhile, steady progress was being
made on the park plans, she said.
A sound and noise-modelling report had been done and was being reviewed by the trust’s stakeholders.
An ecology study had been completed and would be integrated into the park’s environment policy.
An area of QEII-covenanted land had been fenced and a riding trail opened, which was already being used this summer by horses and riders.