PLANS to bring a round of the skateboarding World Cup to Bathurst appear dead in the water with Bathurst Regional Council urged to reject a request from the organisers to use Mount Panorama for the event.
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Council has already shown a reluctance to financially back the event through waiving fees for the use of Mount Panorama and now a report to Wednesday night’s meeting recommends councillors also knock back a request to make the Mount available for the event at all.
Corporate services and finance director Bob Roach had previously “strongly recommended” that councillors reject overtures from the International Downhill Federation, citing a strained relationship with the organisation during the running of Newton’s Nations event on the Mount almost a decade ago.
In his latest report Mr Roach advises that a new event on Mount Panorama would not sit well with residents who call the Mountain home.
“Councillors would realise that the residents at Mount Panorama have raised concerns about the number of events on many previous occasions,” the report states.
“They feel that they are inconvenienced enough with four traditional motor racing events (full circuit closures) and numerous hill climbs, etc. (partial circuit closures).
“An additional event would only heighten their concerns.”
For its part, the IDF’s Australian arm, the Australian Skateboarding Racing Association, has scaled back its request for in-kind support from council to a figure estimated by Mr Roach to be around $10,000 – down from $20,000 – and responded in writing to eight questions from council in relation to the running of the event and ASRA’s organisation structure.
An additional event would only heighten their concerns.
- Corporate services and finance director Bob Roach
ASRA president James Hopkin said his organisation hoped to work with council to make the World Cup round an annual event in Bathurst.
“We want to make it an annual race, so we would not do anything that would jeopardise the council approving the event in the future,” he wrote in a letter to council.