'No chance' of Musselburgh closure insists council as civil war continues
The chairman of the Musselburgh Joint Racing Committee which governs Musselburgh racecourse has insisted that there is "no chance" of the course having its licence removed, even as both sides in the civil war at the track doubled down on their positions at a recent meeting.
Councillor John Caldwell, while accusing the members of the Lothian Racing Syndicate on the MJRC of being "vindictive" and "throwing their toys out of the pram," said: "East Lothian council has come to Musselburgh racecourse's aid before and put a lot of money into the course, which has in turn brought a lot of money to the area. We will take all necessary steps to ensure that racing continues past June."
However, it can be revealed that the rift on the MJRC committee between its four councillor members and three representatives appointed by LRS only deepened in a meeting on Monday.
"We always defer to them on racing matters, but the racecourse must also be run like a business and it just doesn't work to walk out whenever things are going against you."
John Prideaux of the LRS painted a different picture, saying: "The inflexible attitude of the council members has not changed at all. They have continued to abuse their inbuilt majority and it ended up in the three LRS members having to absent themselves in order to prevent the councillors pushing through a proposal that without a shadow of a doubt would have resulted in a rebellion among staff and the staff walking out on strike."
He added: "We discussed one item on the agenda, following a proposal by them, and we believe they'd already agreed before the meeting what they wanted to push through. They did so on the chairman's casting vote even though we argued he and another member had a conflict of interest. They weren't interested in that and it's typical of how they've behaved in the last two to three years. They simply don't understand how serious the situation is."
"Musselburgh has been successful thanks to [general manager] Bill Farnsworth, not thanks to the representatives from the local authority."
Musselburgh was put on a temporary licence by the BHA earlier in the month following a letter from LRS members laying out the extent of administrative problems at the course. It expires at the end of June.
Published on 27 April 2017inNews
Last updated 16:30, 27 April 2017
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