RDC Promotions

As mentioned earlier this week on the RDC Promotions' website we have been busy behind the scenes in recent weeks planning our next move following our loss at Supreme Court with the hope of beginning our campaign at this weekend's One Wild Night event at Mildenhall Stadium on Saturday, March 22 and we are pleased to report that everything is now in place for this to happen and we hope we can call on the support of every single person heading to Mildenhall Stadium this weekend to help start our fight in grand fashion.

Many of you have all heard by now that earlier this month we were devastated to learn that we had lost the latest round of our legal case against two residents who moved into the property closest to the stadium in 2006 who claimed, despite sworn testimonies by the previous owner and estate agents to the contrary, that they did not know of the stadium's existence or its activities and within months started complaining about said activities, ultimately taking the case to the High Court in 2011, which they won before losing at the Appeal Court in 2012. As previously documented the decision by the Supreme Court not only threatens the future of Mildenhall Stadium and RDC Promotions but it threatens all motor racing venues as well as any sporting or arts venue which makes a noise, regardless of whether they have planning permission to do their activities and regardless of how long those activities have been going on for.

This was highlighted by the editorial piece written by Matt Prior in Autocar magazine who concluded his piece by saying: “The short of it is that you can move somewhere, uncaring about when might be nearby, because you can set about having it shut down when you get there."

http://www.autocar.co.uk/blogs/motorsport/moving-next-race-track-gives-you-no-right-complain-about-noise for the full story in Autocar

As the Supreme Court is the highest court in the land we have now decided to take our fight to the Houses of Parliament.

Not only are we calling on the Government to intervene in this case to ensure Stock Car and speedway continues at Mildenhall Stadium as it has done since 1975 but we want to change the law in this country. 

We are calling on the Government to establish in statute that a person coming to an area should accept the existing activity taking place as the character of the area if it is operating legally and has already been granted planning permission. In short not only do we want to protect the future of Mildenhall Stadium and RDC Promotions but we want to ensure this does not happen to any other establish sporting or leisure venue in this country ever again.

Our fight to see this happens begins this weekend at Mildenhall Stadium and at this stage it is quite easy to support our campaign. We are starting a petition and we urge anyone at Mildenhall Stadium this weekend to please take the time and make the extra effort to find a copy of the petition and put their name on it. All we need is your name, address and signature. 

Unfortunately as many of you know, we are quite a small team at RDC and therefore we don't have hundreds of people to bring the petition to you and so we encourage everyone who would like to support our campaign to please make the extra effort to find the petition and put their name on it. It is intended that drivers, and those with them, will be offered the opportunity to sign when they arrive at the stadium. We also hope to have som people in the stadium both before and during the meeting with the petition while copies will also be found at the new sweet stall (on the balcony on turn four) and at the Impact Video stall (by the pit gate).

Regarding the petition, there are some important details we must stress. Firstly only UK residents can sign it. You can only sign it once and you must not sign on someone else's behalf. Finally the information provided must be accurate as failure to do any of this can jeopardise the entire petition.

Please note this is just the start of our campaign and please keep an eye on the RDC website in the immediate future for both updates on how the campaign is going and our next moves as we try and spread the message of our campaign across the UK both inside our sport and beyond to all sports and activities which are potentially threatened by the verdict of the Supreme Court. We also ask anyone to read this to please make others aware, either by word of mouth or through social media.

But be under no illusions. Our fight will be an incredibly hard one and to get Parliament to change the law will be no easy task and only with the support of everyone connected to our sport will we stand a chance.

Full details of the petition can be found below and we sincerely hope we can rely on the support of everyone at Mildenhall Stadium this weekend, your continued support in the weeks to come and also the support of those unable to join us at the stadium this weekend, we promise there will be opportunities for you to support the cause very soon and again please keep an eye on the RDC website which will be regularly updated with information on our campaign in the coming weeks.

Heartfelt thanks again. The Coventry family

To the House of Commons.
The Petition of the owners and spectators of Mildenhall Stadium, West Row, Suffolk

Declares that the Petitioners are concerned that the Courts may unfairly discriminate against lawful and reasonable activity carried out with planning permission after it has already being accepted by residents in the area in favour of a person who comes to the area and objects to the activity despite the activity, motor racing in this case, being well established; further that the Petitioners believe that the consequences of this case may have repercussions for many other activities including stadiums which host football, rugby, cricket, the arts (including music venues, commercial and retail areas such as distribution centres and shopping malls); further that the Petitioners believe that all new developments, including the new Olympic stadium and the Millennium Dome, will not be protected by the law of prescriptive right; and further that the Petitioners believe that this is likely to result in a reluctance from individuals and businesses to invest in such important developments in the future.

The Petitioners therefore request that the House of Commons urges the Government to establish in statute that a person coming to an area should accept the existing activity taking place as the character of the area if it is operating legally and has already been granted planning permission, and further that the House requests that the Government intervenes in this case to allow stock car racing and speedway to continue at Mildenhall Stadium in accordance with planning permission awarded in 1975.