Speedway plans near crematorium 'lack respect'

Amelia Claydon-Smith said her son's ashes are interred at North Wiltshire Crematorium

Plans to build a speedway stadium near a crematorium show a "lack of respect" to grieving families, a bereaved mother has told the BBC.

Amelia Claydon-Smith said her son's ashes were interred at North Wiltshire Crematorium, near to where the company Swindon Motorsports wants to build Studley Grange Motorsports Hub.

She said the plans made her "anxious" that she would have "nowhere to go when I need the peace".

Developers claimed that noise barriers would muffle the track and said the plan was the "last chance" to save the sport in the region after Abbey Stadium stopped hosting it in 2020.

Swindon Motorsports has submitted a planning application to Wiltshire Council for a 330m speedway track, karting circuit, business units and parking for more than 550 vehicles.

The proposed site, at Studley Grange, would lie just outside Swindon, near Royal Wootton Bassett.

Ms Claydon-Smith said the sound of "motorbikes, tannoys and music" alongside event-day traffic would shatter the tranquillity of the crematorium.

She said news of the plans left her feeling "really emotional" and the proposals showed "a lack of respect, a lack of understanding of what bereavement means for people".

"Grief is not a nine-to-five emotion, and I'm very worried that if you want to go down in the late summer's evening that you'll get down there and find that there's a speedway race," Ms Claydon-Smith said.

"We should not be pigeonholed so you can only go between certain times to avoid a noisy sport."

But Steve Park, director at Swindon Motorsports, said independent tests had shown the new stadium "will not create a major noise issue in this area".

The stadium would be built with noise-muffling barriers, while "the bikes themselves have silencers on them", he said.

Mr Park said races would run only after 19:30 BST between April and September, so "we would not expect to be racing when the crematorium was open".

Swindon Speedway is "sitting in the last chance saloon", Mr Park said, after developers checked 32 other sites around Swindon and found the proposed one was the only viable option.

The planning application includes a 330m speedway arena

Lydiard Tregoze Parish Council, which covers an area that borders the proposed speedway stadium, have also objected to the plans "on the grounds of noise and traffic environmental concerns and also the visual impact".

Parish chairman Robert Collis said the track could bring economic benefits to the area, but said residents were mostly against the plans due to worries about disruption.

"Speedway and go-karting is going to be a noisy motorsport," Mr Collis told the BBC.

He said big events would bring a "considerable amount of traffic coming onto a relatively small road".

Speedway at Swindon's Abbey Stadium stopped in 2020, with the Swindon Robins unable to compete ever since.

If the plans are approved, those behind the venture said the site would serve as the team's new home and would create 56 new jobs.

Wiltshire Council is accepting public comments on the proposals until 11 September, with a decision expected by the end of the year.

Construction could begin in early 2026, and the site would also include meeting spaces, business units, covered terraces and an observation area.