'It'll cost us money and will they be listened to?' Mixed reception for blank day plan at Pontefract

You know something big is afoot if a Sky News cameraman and reporter turn up, particularly on a Racing TV course – controversy transcends inter-channel rivalries.

"It's never good news if we're here," says Katerina Vittozzi, Sky's north of England correspondent, who knows of what she speaks. She is fresh from reporting on a funeral director appearing in court in Hull facing burial offence charges. Earlier in her career she was awarded a medal for her coverage of the West African Ebola outbreak.

Vittozzi is at Pontefract to gauge reaction at the coalface to the announcement of a "strike", a blank day on September 10 designed to draw attention to the potentially devastating impact of a Treasury proposal to harmonise online betting tax.

• Racing figures voice support for tax strike action as John Gosden warns rise would 'kill communities' 
• 'Futile political gestures will only antagonise the government' - Betting and Gaming Council questions lack of consultation on strike 
• The racing tax strike explained: when it's happening, why it's happening and which tracks are involved 

Views were varied among the punters and bookmakers she interviewed but course director Norman Gundill, who has been here through foot and mouth, the coronavirus pandemic and numerous other existential threats, is in no doubt that scrapping racing for a day is the right way to go to drive the sport's message home. 

"It's absolutely fantastic for the racing industry to come together and say to the government, 'This is crackers, you've really got to think about this'," he says. "British racing contributes £4.1 billion a year to the UK economy, it generates £300 million in tax revenue and supports 85,000 jobs. Why would you want to harm that?

"The blank day is an excellent idea, it makes people sit up and think. What do other industries do if they're totally against something? They strike. It's making a serious point."

Neil Woods, whose family sponsors the second race in memory of his father Trevor, also supports the move.

"They've got to do something," he says. "Of course, it's all rumours at the moment. But I work in accounts and I know with budgets there are always rumours and you have to do something to draw attention."

However, this is a down-to-earth part of the world, not somewhere whose inhabitants are given to flights of fancy or heroic gestures, and local racegoer David Fox says: "I don't think it will do any good. The government appears hell-bent on going this way and it's not going to change their mind.

"It will cost the industry money to make a statement which isn't going to be listened to. They'd be better off seeing if they can sit down and negotiate a better deal."

Bookmaker Mick Eckley: "It's not ticking a lot of boxes for me"

And Mick Eckley, a bookmaker here who also has a pitch at Carlisle, which will move its September 10 meeting to the previous evening, is another sceptic – and a man who fears the blank day will cost him. 

He says: "The Wednesday meeting at Carlisle last year wasn't very good and it's extremely unlikely we'll turn out on the Tuesday evening. The first race will probably have to be 4pm, maybe even earlier, it's not one of the best evenings of the week and not the right time of year for evening racing. It's not ticking a lot of boxes for me.

"I get the overall picture, there's a big issue to resolve, but are the government really going to listen? Will they be aware? It's a mundane Wednesday."

Read these next:

British racing to cancel all meetings for one day in extraordinary strike over proposed gambling tax rise 

The racing tax strike explained: when it's happening, why it's happening and which tracks are involved 

Out of character but brave and ballsy - racing drastically changes tack by inviting a public showdown with Keir Starmer 

Write to your MP about the Racing Tax

Racing TV has created a template letter than can be used to email local MPs about your concerns over the 'racing tax'. Follow this link to access the template – it should not take more than a couple of minutes to complete.