The saga of the racecourse’s plans to extract chalk fill material from the ‘hatched area’, ostensibly to provide a local source of fill for the Tattenham Straight improvement works, but more likely designed to render the hatched area permanently unfit for use by hack riders, continues.
The papers for Thursday’s meeting of the conservators are now available. Paper 9 is about the Tattenham Straight works. The extraction from the hatched area cannot now go ahead because the racecourse cannot obtain permission from the freeholder, The Trelissick Trust. It seems that the required material will instead be taken from another site which cannot yet be identified. Reading between the lines, it appears the contractor will identify a suitable site around the time that the extraction is to take place, because it cannot predict in advance what site will be in play this far ahead. That is likely to rule out a site on the downs, because the conservators are not being asked to authorise extraction on the downs, only to give approval in principle to sourcing from a local site (but one which can’t be identified to the meeting!).
The racecourse has also said, in regard to the hatched area, “The Racecourse would still be happy to consider assisting the Lower Mole Project to construct some scrapes subject to all stakeholders being in agreement.” How thoughtful!
