BACK in February, this newspaper wrote that the 2017 Newtons Nation event could be the “start of a beautiful relationship, or the final chapter in a messy divorce”.
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It now seems clear which of those was true, at least in the mind of Bathurst Regional Council’s finance staff.
The organisers of the Australian Skateboard Racing Association are again seeking to bring a round of the International Downhill Federation World Cup to Mount Panorama in 2018.
And why not? They were here in February this year and – from the outside, at least – the 2017 tournament appeared to have been a great success.
The lure of one of the truly great racing circuits drew more than 100 of the world’s best downhill racers to Bathurst for four days and made for some spectacular competition.
Behind the scenes, however, it may have been a different story.
A report by corporate services and finance director Aaron Jones to Wednesday night’s council meeting makes it clear that the reservations senior staff had about council supporting the 2017 Newtons Nations event have not gone away.
Mr Jones includes a list of issues, including alleged non-compliance with traffic control plans; non-compliance with resident access/security; risks to competitor safety; and an apparent lack of respect towards council staff.
It all seems to be a bit of history repeating.
ASRA was only given access to Mount Panorama for this year’s event at the insistence of councillors after senior staff had recommended against it, citing a poor relationship with the promoters of the original Newtons Nations from 2008 to 2010.
The 2017 event had different people in the key positions but council’s hierarchy still clearly sees no real benefit to the region in fostering a long-term relationship with them.
But senior staff won’t make the final decision; councillors will. And councillors – led by a very vocal advocate in Warren Aubin – have shown once before that they want to see Newtons Nation work.
The problem for ASRA is that this is a new group of councillors and while Cr Aubin is still there, there will be some new faces they have to win over as well.
It should make for an interesting debate, but just which way this one goes on Wednesday night is anybody’s guess.