The International Downhill Federation is still hoping to run one leg of the 2017 IDF World Tour in Bathurst from February 17-19 and is seeking support from council.

A report to last month’s council meeting by corporate services and finance director Bob Roach “strongly recommended” councillors reject overtures from the IDF, citing a strained relationship with the organisation during the running of Newton’s Nations event on the Mount almost a decade ago.

Councillors deferred a decision after Councillor Warren Aubin urged them to keep open discussions with skateboarding officials.

“We seem to be living in the past and the people we would be dealing with today could be very different to the people we were dealing with then,” he said.

“This could be something that becomes an annual event on the Mount and I would really support it.”

Cr Aubin said council should arrange a meeting with officials from IDF and the Australian Skateboard Racing Association in a bid to find common ground.

Meanwhile, ASRA president James Hopkin has penned an open letter to councillors urging them to back the planned event.

He said ASRA was seeking nothing more from Bathurst Regional Council than it asked of other council areas that host skateboarding events.

“That is, the free use of a public road to hold our event,” Mr Hopkin wrote.

“In Wollongong, when we race on Mount Keira the council does not charge us a fee to race on the public road. We do pay the council fees to process the paperwork such as DAs.”

Mr Hopkin said a skateboarding event would have great benefits for Bathurst.

“Not many cities win the lottery twice with iconic events,” he said.

“Bathurst is famous for motor racing and it is also famous in the skateboarding world for downhill racing.

“I'm not saying a skateboard race could be as big as motor racing, but what would have happened if council actively discouraged motor racing in the 1930s and ‘40s?”