The location of Beachlands speedway near Waldronville has been questioned by Dunedin city councillor Fliss Butcher.
At a council community development committee yesterday, Cr Butcher said there were ecological issues involved in locating a speedway on sand dunes.
Despite her concerns, the committee was obliged to renew the 21-year lease for the speedway and its surrounding buildings because of the club's automatic right of renewal for the lease, which covers council reserve land at the Island Park Recreation Reserve.
The leases of the Dunedin Clay Target Club and the Otago Pistol Club were also renewed.
Cr Butcher said the council was still consulting on the use of the coastal dunes through a working party, and she would have been happier to postpone renewing the lease until the working party was finished.
"Is this an appropriate activity on a sand dune in 2008?" she asked.
In a report to council, reserves policy and planning officer Kay McFarlane said public complaints regarding increased traffic and noise levels when events took place at the speedway had been received.
Noise-test monitoring was carried out by the speedway, although equipment problems had led to just one noise test this year.
Cr Syd Brown said the way the lease was set up, the club had an automatic right of renewal, which it wanted to take up.
The council was bound to renew the lease.
The speedway paid $3307 annually for rent, the pistol club $738, and the clay target club $715.
Playgrounds: Michael Guest asked if council staff had looked at the idea of a super playground in the city.
Marlow Park, the biggest playground in Dunedin, was looking like something out of the 1980s, if not the 1950s, Cr Guest said.
He asked if it was time to look at a different model for playgrounds, considering the cost would be relatively minor compared with some of the council's other big projects.
Council community and recreation manager Mick Reece said playgrounds were under considerable review.
For projects such as the Mosgiel Memorial playground, the council was taking a back seat because of the level of community involvement in the project, he said.
