Councillors at Chudleigh have backed plans to site a speedway track at Haldon Racecourse. At their full meeting on Monday, they voted 6-2 to support Exeter Falcons' scheme. The recommendation will be passed to Teignbridge Council Planning Committee, which will make the final decision. Allen Trump, managing director of Exeter Falcons, told councillors that the public feared noise connected with speedway races, but this was a misconception, as his noise tests proved. He said that on a local course there had been only seven recorded complaints during 324 hours of speedway, and suggested that councils have more complaints about barking dogs than they do about speedway. He condemned the council for making emotive statements such as 'Speedway noise is like rolling thunder,' and criticised the Fire Service for measuring noise levels in the winter when speedway was a summer sport. 'The bikes are inaudible,' he said. Claire Boyes, manager of Harcombe House, run at Chudleigh by the Firefighters National Benevolent Fund, told the town council that the fund chose to site its recuperation centre at Chudleigh in 1981 because of the tranquil surroundings. A new therapy centre recently added to Harcombe cost £21/2m, and 5,000 patients a year would be treated there. The noise of speedway, which the fire service had had measured for a week by an independent company, would damage the peace needed by traumatised and unwell firefighters. The noise would also affect the wildlife in the area. If the problem became too bad, she said, the charity would have to move out of the area. Councillors asked about the normal wind direction, the noise difference between half and full throttle, the number of residents likely to be employed by the speedway, the promise of only one meeting a week during the season, no practising and the strength of the tannoy system.
