A petition to save Saint Lucia’s motorsports base has amassed over 3000 signatures on change.org.
The motorsports base also known as the ‘Caca Bef’, which is located in Vieux Fort, will soon be fenced off and a fuel depot will be put in its place, according to reports.
It is also part of the Hewanorra International Airport Development Project.
On Monday, Sports Minister Kenson Casimir said that a lease was signed in 2017 under the former administration.
That lease was signed by a fuel company and the St. Lucia and Seaports Authority (SLASPA).
“The AG Chambers has requested the full details for that lease. We will find some more information from SLASPA in the coming week on what actually happened (and) why that lease was signed by the previous administration,” Kenson Casimir told reporters on Monday.
“In terms of the lease, we are still getting information. We’ve certainly not seen the details of that lease… And I’ve heard somewhere in the media people said that we knew… that is not true,” the minister added.
As the Minister for Sports, he said, “We endeavoured to speak to the car racing fraternity on a proper venue. We really desire to have a facility equipped with proper stands for the viewing public… washroom facilities… change rooms for the racers and it would require a vast amount of space; ‘Caca Bef’ gives you the opportunity to just have the racing aspect. And so we did have a number of meetings…. for the last couple of years.”
Two areas were selected namely Cul-de-Sac and Dennery.
“Both areas have a tremendous cost in terms of proper drainage to allow for (a) functioning activity to actually happen there. Once we started having discussion on Cul-de-Sac we realised… again, we were moving activities from the south of the island. And so we met with Crownlands and other stakeholders to see where it is in Vieux Fort we can actually put the racing track. We identified a place which was close to the airport and the advice given by SLASPA was that it was in a buffer zone in case of emergencies,” he noted.
Whilst people have asked “why we’ve taken this amount of time, the fact of the matter is we really wanted to keep car racing in the south and we are at a point where we really have to bite the bullet and decide to bring it up north, more than likely in the area of Cul-de-Sac; we have the designs, we have the drawings and we’re going to continue that discussion,” the minister said, adding that “we’re going to eventually find and have that venue for car racers in Saint Lucia.”
In 2020, the United Workers Party said it found a home for motorsports in Dennery.
“Given that work on the new Hewanorra International Airport has commenced and includes the site of the ‘Cacabef’ as part of the new airport project, we are working with local motorsport entrepreneurs and enthusiasts to find a new permanent home for motorsports,” political leader Allen Chastanet said at the time.
A group of ministers along with a team from the Department of Physical Planning, members of the local motorsports racing community and the political leader visited the proposed site and “we are committed to working together to make this a reality,” Chastanet added.