Two of the leading campaigners who fought to stop the Cradley Heathens speedway team moving on to green belt land near their homes have now signed a petition supporting the return of the club.
After the planning application was withdrawn for the site off Oldnall Road in Wollescote last week, Michael Hankin and Michelle Semens have done an about-turn and pledged their support for the return of the Heathens.
Both have signed the online petition still going at www.cradleyspeedway.co.uk and say that although Oldnall Road was the wrong site, they are backing the bid to bring the Heathens back to the borough. Mrs Semens said: “I believe Dudley MBC should do all they can to help Cradley Heath speedway find a suitable location for a home to enable the club to return to the borough.”
And Mr Hankin, seen by residents as the leader of the campaign to defeat the Oldnall Road bid, added: “The speedway should return but only in the right environment where it does not affect anyone else.
“It just needs vision, commitment and money.” A leader of the bid to bring the legendary team back to the track today refused to criticise the pair for changing tack.
Spokesman for Cradley Raise Aid Saving Heathens (CRASH) Bob Edwards said: “Fair play to them, it is nice to have their support and to have support, wherever it comes from.
“The great majority of the residents living around Oldnall Road have said they would like to see speedway back in Dudley, that has never been the issue, but obviously they did not want it next to them.
“Oldnall Road was the end of the road in terms of our site search, it was way down the list. “There were more suitable sites in our view as well but we were advised by Dudley Council not to pursue them.”
The Heathens were the finest team in the country in the 1980s and early 1990s, with scores of world champions in their ranks including Bruce Penhall and Erik Gundersen.
Domestic trophies were amassed until the bombshell in the mid 1990s when it was announced their Dudley Wood home had been sold to Barratts for housing.
The team folded a year later and has not ridden competitively since.
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