Family on track

By Kelly Yates
A PEARCEDALE family has been granted a permit for their private motorbike track after a 12-month battle with the council and neighbours.
Leanne Gardiner and her family have spent the past 10 years tearing around the track on their three hectare Favorite Hill Road property and were stunned when the council decided they need two separate permits to continue riding on it.
Ms Gardiner said the council demanded the family apply for a retrospective permit to build the track, and another to continue riding motorbikes on it.
Angry neighbours objected to the application for the grant, citing excessive noise, but their concerns did not stop Casey council from granting the permit to build the track.
The council received nine objections in relation to the dust and noise but Ms Gardiner said there were no objections relating to the actual track.
“We live on a dirt road so there are large amounts of dust even when a car is driving by,” she said.
Ms Gardiner admitted she could understand that the noise was annoying the neighbours but said her sons only rode their motorbikes during permitted times.
“We are not breaking the law.”
Neighbour Jim Gleason, an Oakhill Road resident, said the noise the motorbikes made was louder than a jumbo jet landing.
“It needs to be regulated,” he said.
“These kids ride from the early hours of the morning to the evening. They stop to refuel and then they are at it again,” he said.
Ms Gardiner said her two children can legally ride their bikes for two hours in the morning and two hours in the evening, every day of the week.
“Motorbike riding is a hobby for my boys. They don’t need to practice every day. On average they only ride twice a week for about four hours,” she said.
Casey councillor Brian Hetherton chaired last Tuesday’s planning meeting and urged any private motorbike track owners without a permit to contact the council.