The Nelson Car Club has admitted they made a mistake with their paperwork for the MRF Mainland Series 2018 car rally race, which resulted in them incorrectly setting out their course on Saturday, July 14, and racing on unpermitted stretches of public roads.
Tasman District Council’s community relations manager Chris Choat says rally organisers have been “very apologetic” and have ensured council they will make contact with each affected resident to apologise for the inconvenience.
“In terms of the on-the-ground event preparation and management, they followed normal practice with letter drops to affected properties, race safety procedures and traffic management including warning tape across entrances and safety car reconnaissance, so we are satisfied that the risk to road users was limited,” says Chris.
Prior to July 14’s rally, the car club had a clean record in running a number of events on the region’s roads without incident.
Future applications for road closures for car club events will now be subject to additional conditions where the council will monitor the event start and end, at an additional cost to organisers, until the council are satisfied the car club are following the rules.