Issues over Circuit of Wales, Ebbw Vale 'a formality'

A hotel and motor industries centre are part of the development

Developers behind plans for a £325m motor racing track in Blaenau Gwent have said the project has reached an important milestone.

The Welsh government is "minded to grant" a take over of common land for the Circuit of Wales in Ebbw Vale.

But outstanding issues with the rights of commoners must be resolved before a formal decision is made.

The Heads of the Valleys Development Company (HOTVDC) said those issues had been resolved and were a "formality".

The development comes after a public inquiry in March examined the firm's request to take over 250 hectares (600 acres) of common land.

The HOTVDC said the latest announcement from Rebecca Evans, the deputy minister for farming and food, meant it could now exercise agreements already in place with commoners, which includes providing replacement land.

"We do have in place an agreement to extinguish the rights with the commoners so all we have to do at this stage is execute that agreement which we'll do in the coming weeks," company director Jon Jones told BBC Radio Wales.

"It's slightly more complex than we thought it would be but it's a formality in reality."

The development planned for Rassau aims to create 6,000 jobs and is set to host the MotoGP from 2017.

HOTVDC has said it has Asian financial backers for the project, which has a £200m private finance target to get it off the ground.

The rest of the money is expected to come from Welsh government support and local authorities.

"We're confident that in the coming weeks we'll be able to start revealing who and where the money's coming from and that we will have all of the funding in place within a few months," Mr Jones said.

He added that preparation work could start before Christmas and hopes the circuit would be ready to host the 2017 MotoGP.

"The biggest question mark is around the weather," he said. "It's quite a tight building schedule and would be influenced by adverse weather conditions."

Blaenau Gwent council has previously called the racetrack a world class development which could "truly transform Blaenau Gwent and the local economy".