By RUSSELL BENNETT
TWO of the local area’s key motorsport groups are back to square one in their search for a permanent home after it was deemed their current McGregor Road site isn’t big enough to house them.
Pakenham Auto Club and Kooweerup and District Motorcycle Club (KWRMCC) have for years been looking for the security of a permanent home.
Their current base on McGregor Road has a total area of just under 129 hectares but less than half of that is available for use.
The section of land under the powerlines has been deemed unsuitable for motorsport facilities, while the area of land next to Toomuc Creek is reserved as a creek and frog habitat buffer while another section is affected by the future freeway reservation.
That leaves just 64 hectares remaining, which Cardinia Shire Council has said is the minimum suitable for the future development of the Motor Recreation and Education Facility which is also earmarked for the property.
In 2014, KWRMCC life members John Spencer and Len Price told the Gazette that the club would be without a home within the next two years in order to make way for the multi-purpose venue for motor recreation and driver education.
“There is not enough room for the bike club as well as the car club,” Mr Spencer said at the time.
“They offered us a small amount of land which wasn’t sufficient.
“The projected timeframe (for us to leave) is within the next two years.
“What they have to do is identify an appropriate location with a bit more vigour because at the moment we are getting dusted off.”
At the council’s March monthly meeting recently, Ranges Ward councillor Bret Owen said the shire was actively pursuing a site for the KWRMCC and Pakenham Auto Club but that site would not be the McGregor Road property.
“I acknowledge this has a long and chequered history and people are frustrated with council,” he said, adding that the council is aware of the community’s disappointment with the outcome.
Cardinia shire CEO Garry McQuillan said the council recognised the need to establish a permanent home for the two clubs and that the identification of a new site was “well advanced”.
Council is hoping to finalise a new site over the next two months.
A petition with more than 600 signatures was tabled at the February council meeting.
Organised by the Pakenham Auto Club and the Kooweerup and District Motorcycle Club, it read: “We the undersigned support the establishment within Cardinia Shire of motorsports facilities to accommodate the needs of the community-based Pakenham Auto Club and Kooweerup and District Motorcycle Club.”
