Thanks for highlighting that Steve. The proposal, if carried through, will make the cost of entering forest rallies such as the local Cambrian Rally, prohibitive and result it its demise. The Cambrian, along with the Wales Rally GB, bring in a lot of revenue to the locality - two years ago a survey was conducted on the Cambrian and it was estimated that the event is worth over £300,000 to the Conwy County area. It is therefore important that support is given to sort out this issue - it is only the Welsh Forestry (Natural Resource Wales) that have put forward this 100% increase in fees, the English and Scottish forestry have agreed with a 0.7% increase.
To give you some idea of the costs involved in hiring the forests the Cambrian Rally pays about £25,000 for about 25 miles of forestry roads used. This has to be accounted for in the event entry fees. 100% increase would push the event entry fee up by about £200 and with the majority of the competitors funding out of their own pockets then the number of entries will drop to a point where the whole event becomes financially unstable.
Your support in signing the petition would be much appreciated. The matter is an item on the agenda for the Welsh Assembly when they first meet, and there has been a lot of support from the AM's, for which the motorsport community is extremely grateful.
Thank you.
https://www.assembly.wales/en/gethome/e-petitions/Pages/petitiondetail.aspx?PetitionID=943