Goulburn Mulwaree Council seeks talks with Wakefield Park and residents amid legal battle

A popular raceway trying to expand its activities will hold further talks with Goulburn Mulwaree Council about its plans after residents complained about noise issues coming from the track.

Following noise concerns from frustrated residents living near Wakefield Park Raceway, Goulburn Mulwaree Council has talked of “amicable” solutions amid an impending court case on one of the most divisive issues to come out of the region.

After last year’s decision to conditionally approve a development application by Wakefield Park Raceway due to noise concerns from frustrated residents, Goulburn Mulwaree councillor Jason Shepherd decided to reignite discussion around the topic at Tuesday night’s meeting.

“This is a fairly hot topic for the community and I think we need to reapproach Wakefield as well as the residents in the area, to see if there’s an amicable solution that can be reached,” Cr Shepherd said.

Race day at Wakefield Park Raceway in Goulburn.

The matter is currently before the NSW Land and Environment Court after the council approved a three-tier noise limit system to reduce the sound coming from the track.

Wakefield Park’s application included an expansion of the 2.2km motor racing circuit located at Braidwood Rd, Tirrannaville, to include community events that aren’t motorsport related.

However a council consultation with residents revealed some people were worried about the additional noise the expansion would cause.

The council approved the application on the condition that Wakefield Park kept noise to a minimum - 30 days of operations at up to 95 decibels (averaged over 15 minutes) – equivalent to the sound of a motorcycle – and 100 days at up to 85 dBa – the sound of city traffic while you are inside a car or the sound of a lawnmower.

The conditions would have come into place on January 1 and would be part of a three-tiered noise limit system that the owner’s would transition into, taking full effect in 2024.

However the owners of Wakefield Park, Benalla Auto Club, have disputed the conditional approval, instead wanting 75 days of noise up to 95dBA, and have launched an appeal in NSW Land and Environment Court, with a hearing looming on March 8 – 10.

According to the council’s general manager Warwick Bennett, the matter is “firmly entrenched with the court” and therefore out of council’s hands.

However, the council moved to “hold without prejudice discussions with management of Wakefield Park Raceway, in order to seek alternate approval conditions which would be the basis of further discussions with residents who made submissions to council in July 2021,” at its meeting on Tuesday night.

Mr Bennett told the meeting he would start discussions with the owners and submitters of complaints on Wednesday.

Wakefield Park operations manager, Dean Chapman, told the Bowral News he hoped they could come to an agreement.

“I commend the councillors for discussing this, we’re hoping for a constructive conversation about trying to work towards a positive solution for residents, Wakefield and the rest of the Goulburn community,” Mr Chapman said.

“We just want another 25 years at Wakefield and what’s on the table at the moment is not workable long-term.”

Mr Chapman said he hoped the expansion would encourage residents to see how useful Wakefield could be for entertainment purposes.

“It’s a demonstration of wanting to provide different types of events, events that don’t involve the noise of track events, such as farmers markets, carnivals, arts and craft markets, fun runs – basically community events that everyone will benefit from,” Mr Chapman said.

“We don’t want to lose it (motor racing) as a core business but we also care about everyone else.”