BRIGHTON and Hove Council want to end the popular Speed Trials event due to 'Health and Safety' concerns.
The council claim that they are looking at the viability of the event after a competitor died in 2012, causing the event to be cancelled in 2013 while a coroner investigated. At the inquest the jury heard how vehicles were travelling at 150mph on a road with a 30mph limit.
However, Tony Watts, of Brighton and Hove Motor Club, organisers of the Speed Trials event, claimed the uncertainty was because the Green-led authority did not believe the event “fitted in” with their view of a modern Brighton.
Conservative councillor Ken Norman told the Brighton Argus that cancelling the event would “destroy” part of the city’s great heritage and fellow Conservative councillor Garry Pelzer Dunn called for the local authority to have a “sense of realism”. He asked if the council would have to close the beach seeing as many more people had died in the sea than at the Speed Trials.
The Speed Trials first took place in 1905 and is the world's longest running motorsport event where each year around 200 cars and motorcycles are timed along the strip.
If you want to support the Brighton Speed Trials, sign the petition here.
