THE company behind the Ebbw Vale Circuit of Wales racetrack plan will meet a body objecting to the plans today.

The meeting comes as the Welsh Government put the brakes on the £250m scheme by asking to take a closer look at the plans for the racetrack in Blaenau Gwent.

An official from Heads of the Valleys (HVDC) the company behind the development of the Circuit of Wales, told the Argus it will meet National Resources Wales (NRW) today.

Michael Carrick, chief executive of HVDC, said: “We are very confident in the outline planning application we have submitted and are delighted that we received the unanimous backing of Blaenau Gwent County Borough Council in today’s vote.

“The Welsh Government has asked for more time to look at the project and we’re happy to continue engaging with them and all stakeholders to ensure we address, as much as possible, the specific concerns they have.”

The council had also received a letter from NRW reaffirming their objection to the application.

The Welsh Government-funded environmental body also took issue with the report and said it was “not happy”, according to the council’s head of planning and building control, Steve Smith.

Yesterday a special Blaenau Gwent council meeting called to discuss the scheme was was halted after just four minutes. The meeing was set to go over the conditions of the plans passed by the council on July 10, subject to a Section 106 agreement for contributions to the community.

Councillors unanimously agreed with the wording of the conditions for the Circuit of Wales project which covered noise, biodiversity, drainage, archaeology and other issues.

But in a letter received by the council yesterday morning, the Welsh Government stated it wanted to take a further look at the planning application.

In a statement, the Welsh Government said it has issued a holding direction, which prevents the council from granting planning permission.

A spokesman said: “The Welsh ministers have been asked to call in the application and those requests are still under consideration. The holding direction provides the Welsh ministers with more time within which to consider whether or not the application should be called in for their own determination.”

This prevented the authority from approving the multimillion pound racetrack in Rassau, which could bring up to 9,000 local jobs.

However, the council will be allowed to continue with the application process.

Circuit looks to create Heads of Valleys winners

THE Circuit of Wales would see the creation of a high-performance circuit, motocross circuit, karting circuit, fourwheel drive circuit, riding academy, innovation centre, hotels, retail showrooms, ancillary retail, driver training area, solar park, camping and parking.

In addition, Heads of the Valleys hope to create up to 9,000 jobs, with around 90 per cent of these being provided for local people.

Bosses expect the track to attract around 750,000 visitors a year, and as many as 1,500 training posts could be created and directly funded by the development, as well as providing an academy for safer driving and riding.

Up to 3,000 construction jobs and 6,000 operational jobs could also be created.

ARGUS COMMENT: Fast track goes slow

YESTERDAY we expressed our concerns that Blaenau Gwent council was putting up barriers to the development of the Circuit of Wales.

Then, we were worried that the time scale may be too tight for what was wanted.

Today though we are facing a whole different ball game.

Now the Welsh Assembly has stepped in at the last minute to put the brakes on the whole scheme.

It was a matter of minutes into the special meeting of Blaenau Gwent council to discuss the motorsport centre plans, that a letter was read out from the Assembly Government which effectively ordered the council to go no further.

The Assembly instead wants to have time to decide whether or not it wants to call in the plans so it can make the decision.

This is a terrible move and, in our view, one which could have been made at any stage over the past few weeks or months.

To make such an announcement at this late stage is a real backward step.

It certainly does no favours for the image of Wales as a place to do business.

Those behind the plan now have little idea of when the Assembly will decide whether it does or does not want to call in the plan and, if it does, what lengthy discussions would then follow.

Because, let’s be honest, when plans go off to Cardiff Bay for consideration, delays are inevitable.