TAMWORTH Harness Racing Club (THRC) chairman Terry Browne is hoping for some answers to a simple question when he and his board meet with Harness Racing NSW (HRNSW) in Tamworth today.
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Two weeks ago Tamworth MP Kevin Anderson savaged HRNSW for its “neglect” of a proposed new Tamworth track.
Browne said there had been no reaction from HRNSW but hopes they are waiting for today’s meeting in Tamworth to allay any local fears of the new track being put back even further.
“We’ve got letters from members to the HRNSW in 2006 advising us Tamworth was the next track to be built,” Browne said at Thursday’s Tamworth TAB meeting.
“Yet we’ve seen other tracks started and finished since.”
It was ironic that the same day Anderson was kicking the HRNSW all around the dilapidated Tamworth track wo Thursdays back, HRNSW was crowing about their start of a $6.5million track in Wagga.
HRNSW CEO John Dumesny said the decision by the Southern Joint Regional Planning Panel “will see a new track of international standard built in Wagga and that is great news for the state’s industry and especially those people in the local area”.
“HRNSW will now await on the pre-construction conditions before the project will go out to tender so I would expect the facility will be ready to conduct race meetings by late 2016 or early 2017 which is quite exciting.” Dumesny said.
“This is a $6.5 million project to be built in North Wagga. It highlights the support the region has from the Board and Executive of HRNSW,” Dumesny added.
Meanwhile the THRC and all the local owners and trainers have been listening to endless HRNSW excuses extending back a decade on the lack of building a new facility.
The HRNSW has bought land south of Tamworth for the new track but no DA has been lodged, Browne said.
Anderson let fly at a Tamworth meeting two weeks ago about the HRNSW inaction.
He said a number of people in the Tamworth harness racing community had come to him, deeply concerned that Harness Racing NSW is neglecting Tamworth Harness Racing Club’s bid to upgrade their track.
“There is a meeting on November 23 with all the boards and clubs meeting with Harness Racing NSW to look at the future,” Anderson said.
“No doubt Terry Browne has got some pretty hard questions, and they basically want answers.”
The State Government recently announced racing tax parity will start next year, which means there will be more funds pumped into regional racing.
“We want to make sure that money comes to the North West and that harness racing in Tamworth is the beneficiary of that,” Anderson said.
“The beauty about having the Deputy Premier as the Racing Minister is that he is a mate of mine, he understands Tamworth and he grew up in Tamworth so he knows how important racing is in Tamworth.”
Browne said Anderson was responding to the very reasonable community concerns.
“It has been in the pipeline for a long time,” Browne said.
“Harness Racing NSW has done a great job to have the foresight to do the planning for it, it’s just that we are reaching the stage where it needs to be completed.
“The local harness racing industry has been very resilient but the community has expectations that the money will be spent in Tamworth and we’ll have new facilities soon.”
The ball is now in the HRNSW court, has been for a dozen years and it’s time they aimed up.
