Te Matai Motorsport goes into negotiations over its 380ha TECT All Terrain Park lease today under a cloud controversy.

A train similar to this one is expected to become an attraction at the TECT All Terrain Park if the Bush Railway and Old Sawmill Trust's proposal is accepted.

Te Matai Motorsport is an umbrella organisation representing five motorsport clubs that are among the originators of the whole concept of the TECT All Terrain Park.

The motorsport clubs and shooting clubs are the user groups that originally pushed for the ‘noisy sports' park, and have seen it come to fruition over the last seven years.

And like the shooting clubs in May, they believe their lease area is threatened by what Te Matai chairman David Loughlin calls ‘in-fill' clubs that are clamouring for space now that the park is established.

Earlier this year the model aircraft flyers were allocated space that required them to overfly the shooting range. That argument was ready to boil over from park management to the committee stage before it was resolved by finding a new area for the model flyers.

The motorsports group believes its lease is threatened by Rotorua based Bush Railway and Old Sawmill Trust, which has presented a proposal that encroaches upon the boundary of the Te Matai Motorsport lease.

'It places us in a new negotiating position,” says Dave today.

'We are trying hard to stay out of the media.

'I haven't been interviewed, and I'm trying not to be interviewed.

'We are due to go into a final negotiating meeting with council over this very issue and I don't want to muddy the waters.

'That's our position at the moment. We are concerned about the proposal but we are negotiating with council to overcome those concerns.”

The joint council TECT All Terrain Park subcommittee chairman Bill Faulkner says the bush railway proposal has not been approved by the subcommittee.

'Why Te Matai Motorsport got upset is because they understood incorrectly that the bush railway was a done deal, and it was going across their leased land; it was all rhetoric and bull,” says Bill.

The subcommittee hasn't approved the application. It has called for a staff report on the implications of the bush sawmill and rail proposal.

'What that means is the bush railway have said they are prepared to put in at their expense a bush railway and old sawmill. They will put up a bond, in the event they tip over.

'They will go wherever we say they can go, so it won't impact on anybody unless they want it. And then and only then, that report will come back to the committee and then and only then, will it be decided if they are to be in the park or not.

'This is how it is, not how Murray Guy would like to think it was going to be or not going to be.”

The bush railway application was stirred into a circus by one of the other Tauranga City Councillors on the TECT All Terrain Park subcommittee – Murray Guy, says Bill.

The park's user group forum heard the bush railway proposal was going to the committee and got upset believing the proposal, which park manager Ric Balfour, WBOPDC reserves and facilities manager Peter Watson and council engineering services manager Gary Allis recommended be agreed to in principle, was to be accepted by the committee.

Dave Lougthlin was entitled to react to the scuttlebutt and his letter was tabled at the meeting, says Bill.

The content of that letter is the basis of the second BOP Times story, say Bill.

BOP Times reporter John Cousins was not at the meeting and Dave Loughlin today says John Cousins has not spoken to him directly about the bush railway issue.

Murray Guy and John Cousins are being extremely naughty, says Bill.

'What the process will be is that a report on the implications will come back to the committee, which will make a decision in principle as to whether or not it's a fit,” says Bill.

'If it's not a fit that's the end of the matter, if it is a fit then it will go out to consultation with everybody including the user group forum.”