Horse racing enthusiasts are desperately trying to find a new home after being given just weeks to vacate their home of almost six decades.
Corbiewood Stadium in Bannockburn has been home to the Scottish harness racing community since 1966, offering American-style harness racing on a regular basis between May and November.
But the facility is soon to be demolished to make way for a major new housing development as part of the South Stirling Gateway development.
Plans for a £100m development of 800 new homes were approved by Stirling Council in June 2020. The Tulloch Homes and Persimmon Homes project covers 40 acres of land next to Pirnhall and Bannockburn. As well as houses it includes a primary school, a park and ride facility and golf course.
Nuala Goodman of the Scottish Harness Racing Club said this week: “The stadium is to be demolished in March 2022.
“We have been given until January to vacate the premises by Persimmon homes who have bought the site.
“Also in the stadium is Bannockburn Boxing Club.
“Corbiewood has been the home of harness racing for 55 years and boxing for 30 yrs. As you can imagine the news has come as a shock, as it has been a popular sport in the area with up to 300 people attending each week to spectate and compete in the racing.
“There is no other track available in Scotland to race on. There is also the fact that the horses are bred to race and now are redundant (they have a special gait).
“Ours is a family sport with people training and racing this type of horse for generations. Without help it will die out in Scotland.
“We urgently need help to find new premises. We require a flat area and can do the majority of the work ourselves.
“Along with the former golf course, these facilities have provided valuable social contact for people in the community and are not being replaced.”
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Another club member Brett Goodwillie, made a plea on social media.
He said: “I’m a member of the Scottish Harness Racing Club, an affiliate of the British Harness Racing Club. We race for approximately six months of the year just outside Stirling at Corbiewood. It’s the last hard track in Scotland and has been under review for being sold by the owners for a few years.
“The time has now come and it’s been sold for a new large scale building development in the area with the people who are stabled there being given 45 days notice to vacate the premises.
“We as a club are now on the lookout for an area that could accommodate a 3/8th or 1/2m track with the appropriate car parking, stand and if possible stabling requirements within ideally the Scottish central belt.
“We are well aware that the prime grounds are all going for house building, but we don’t need prime ground, we just need an area that is firm enough to be able to put the above infrastructure on without sinking.
“Our biggest issue is finance. We dont have tens of thousands of pounds to hand but we do have income. We have been paying £6,000 a year to rent the track and if we can get somewhere then that money would obviously be a part of any finance arrangement. If we could get stables built then these would be rented out to add to the finance along with other revenues which we have at our disposal.”
A spokesperson for Persimmon said the land has been allocated for development as part of the South Stirling Gateway Masterplan for seven years adding: “Both the current owner and the leaseholder have therefore been aware for many years that the council intended that the land was developed. In serving this notice the current landowner is simply adhering to the required process following Stirling Council’s approval at planning committee last year.”
The club held an open meeting in McQue’s in Bannockburn earlier this week to disccuss the future of harness racing in Scotland.
