Campaign group hits £20,000 fundraising target in bid to save Coventry Speedway

The campaign group seeking to save the home of Coventry Speedway hit its £20,000 fundraising target to pay for legal representation within a week.

Save Coventry Speedway and Stox has closed its online appeal to help pay to be represented at September's planning inquiry that will decide the fate of Coventry Stadium, Rugby Road, located between Binley Woods and Brandon.

The stadium hosted Coventry Bees, one of the country’s most iconic speedway clubs, and stock car racing until 2016 with campaigners fighting plans by owners Brandon Estates to turn it into housing ever since.

The latest plans to build 124 homes, a 3G football pitch and pavilion were unanimously rejected by Rugby Borough Council’s planning committee in November 2022 in front of a public gallery packed with fans, including British racing legend Chris ‘Bomber’ Harris, despite planning professionals having recommended approval.

The matter will now go to an inquiry – the most formal procedure by which planning appeals are decided – that begins on Tuesday, September 16.

Legal representatives can cross-examine parties and expert witnesses to investigate evidence with the process, led by national planning inspector Robert Wordsworth, taking days, perhaps weeks to conclude.

The final decision then comes in writing, often weeks after the inquiry closes.

The single reason for refusal was based on a national policy that “existing open space, sports and recreational buildings and land, including playing fields, should not be built on unless the development is for alternative sports and recreational provision, the benefits of which clearly outweigh the loss of the current or former use”.

Save Coventry Speedway and Stox has always maintained that motorsport remains viable at the site and that buyers for the land and people to run the speedway and stock car racing are waiting in the wings.

The group plans to evidence its case at the inquiry and, for the first time since its inception, asked for financial assistance from fans and wellwishers to pay for legal representation.

More than 600 people stepped up, including borough councillor and ex-Bees racer Tony Gillias (Con, Revel & Binley Woods) who donated £1,000, and the target of £20,000 has been surpassed.

A statement on the Save Coventry Speedway and Stox website read: “We want to place on record our sincere thanks to each and everybody who contributed via the GoFundMe page.

“Our £20,000 target was reached in just seven days, and more than 600 people donated. In some ways this is an astonishing response, but in others we really shouldn’t be surprised as we know just how much this means to everyone.

“Every single contribution is gratefully appreciated, and we will provide a further update in the coming days as to our intentions for the planning appeal inquiry which takes place in September.”

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