Editor: I was unimpressed with your front page coverage of the proposal to establish a race track in Campbell Valley (The Times, April 11), given that there were no comments from anyone other than Langley Speedway supporters. There are plenty of people who oppose the ridiculous suggestion that car races should be revived in this nature and equestrian park, and your paper couldn’t find one person to interview?
As a member of the Campbell Valley Park Association, as a resident who lives beside this nature and equestrian park, and as a concerned community member, I see nothing positive about such a proposal.
The former speedway in Campbell Valley Park is nothing but a track surrounded by thick vegetation and equestrian and walking trails. Imagine the impact on the park, to build a modern-day race track.
With respect to its agricultural and speedway past, Campbell Valley Park was created as a nature and equestrian park. It also functions to protect the quality of the aquifer in Langley.
A speedway retrofit in this park would not only be inconsistent with its current use patterns, it would be extremely noisy, produce greenhouse gases, require equestrian and hiking trails to be diverted, and require huge amounts of parking space. This in itself would impact on the quantity and quality of habitat in the park, and create massive traffic issues on 16 Avenue, which is already considered an overused and very dangerous road.
More traffic would inevitably cause more wildlife road kill. The race noise would spook horses and degrade the park experience for family picnics, dogwalkers, and hikers and naturalists. The sanctity and green space of this park becomes all the more important as plans to develop Brookswood and move thousands of people into this area proceed.
The Campbell Valley Park Association has consistently opposed any proposition to re-establish the speedway. The Langley Speedway Historical Society is very much aware of this, and its members have stated on numerous occasions that they did not intend to rebuild the speedway.
Yet last week, they advertised their proposal to rebuild the speedway on radio and newspapers and made a proposal to the Metro Vancouver parks committee.
This doesn’t sound like a group that can be trusted to work with the community or have the benefit of the park in mind. What really should be done is that the site be restored to a natural forest, so that it is consistent with the current status of this park.
Christine Bishop,
Langley