Wellington Aerodrome will continue to be used for drag racing

Dubbo Regional Council's deputy mayor Richard Ivey put up a notice of motion that council temporarily withhold Dubbo City Car Club (DCCC) from using the Wellington Aerodrome and Recreation Park while an assessment of the actual cost of wear and tear on the airfield tarmac which results from the use of the facility be conducted.

Cr Ivey then wanted a subsequent agreement to be reached between Dubbo Regional Council (DRC) and the DCCC for a reasonable level of cost recovery to be paid by the DCCC to DRC in relation to that assessed wear and tear.

The motion was ultimately lost.

DCCC Interim secretary Stephanie Huysmans spoke at public forum about how the aerodrome track holds a special place in her heart as she has been attending since she was just nine-years-old.

"At our most recent event we had 64 entries and over 140 people in the region, which brought in roughly $62,000 in one weekend, with number of businesses and organisations benefit from us holding these events," she said.

Ms Huysmans stated that repairs for the track had taken place by a council contractor but after a race meet, there were materials left over from trying to fix the cracks.

"We pride ourselves on running safe, fun events for everyone...it is a safe place for people to race and removes that activity from the streets," she said.

"If the tarmac is unsafe then all events should stop and not just ours."

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DCCC committee member Wayne Gilbert also submitted documents of support from the IHRA Australia and the Toyota National's president.

"We have been hosting the nationals event and they have been coming to our track for 20 years and they will continue coming for the next 20 years," he said.

"When improvements get made with the track, it will make it better for everyone who uses the facility."

The deputy mayor said he did not oppose the use of the air field or facility by the car club, and would encourage it be used for drag meets but he wanted someone to sit down and see the cost of the aftereffects of a meet.

"I don't think anyone has ever sat down and gone 'righto' what is the cost? What is a fair recovery and how do we integrated to make it sustainable multi use facility?" he said.

"They have used it for 20 years and one section needs more repairs and that one section has been caused by the car club, and there should be a cost recovery for that."

Cr Ivey said they need to be objective and work out the costs to repair the damage caused.

"Until that is done the use of the facility by the car club should be temporarily suspended, not permanently just temporarily," he said.

Cr Damien Mahon said he couldn't support the "knee jerk" motion.

"We can't pull the rug on a long term user of the facility who have events coming up," he said.

"It's well intended but premature and until we get facts, where the damage was caused and the long term solutions, we can't stop the club."

Cr Jessica Gough said she has heard Cr Ivey speak about inclusiveness and being unified so she couldn't agree to the motion either.

"We can't stop one group from using the aerodrome, we have to stop everyone from using it. It just isn't fair, we want everyone to use the facility, not just certain people," she said.

Cr Vicki Etheridge said council has had enough experts looking at the bitumen and tarmac at the aerodrome.

"There is a little bit of damage but not in the landing area, and it's a multi purpose facility we don't know what caused it," she said.

"We've had enough experts say the Dubbo City Car Club don't do any damage to it."

In his right of reply, councillor Ivey said he wanted to make sure they fix the problem now before it becomes worse in the future.

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