The scheduling means that for the first time, the track now enjoys legal protection against damage. Importantly, it would also now be extremely difficult to obtain permission to build on the track, or cause any damage to it in the course of carrying out any development work.

The scope of the scheduling, which is extensive, includes the whole of the remaining outer circuit, plus, importantly, the earthworks on which the banked sections depend for support. 

In addition, the Members' Hill, in its entirety, is scheduled. English Heritage took the view that there were too many individual features still remaining on the hill to record individually, so the whole hill was included instead. The red dots on the photograph show the extent of the designation.

Finally, all of the remaining Campbell Circuit has also been scheduled.

Looking ahead, the Brooklands Society Planning and Preservation Sub-Committee has now started work on documenting the condition of the remaining track, with a view to establishing a plan for its long term maintenance or restoration. We will be providing more information as it becomes available and as a first pass you can browse through a number of photographs of the track and its surface taken last week - 1st March 2002 - by clicking on the above links.

It should be noted that whilst scheduling makes it a criminal offence to damage the track, it does not imply that the owners of the various sections have any obligation to maintain the track in any way.

However - the designation 'Historic Monument' has a lot more cachet to it than the description 'clapped out strip of old moss-ridden concrete' don't you think? 

In 2007 we will celebrate Brooklands' Centenary. With 100 years of history behind us all of the track section owners have a lot to be proud of. In fact they are downright incredibly lucky to own a piece of the action so we are very hopeful that everyone involved will rise to the occasion and buy in to refurbishing and preserving Brooklands track for what it really is - a miraculous and outstanding monument to both civil engineering and the transport industry at the very beginning of the 20th Century. 

It has long been the aim of the Society to ensure that the remaining track enjoys the maximum available protection, since Kenneth Evans first addressed this issue many years ago. The scheduling is the result of a major effort made by the Society over the past 2 years, which for obvious reasons has had to be kept under wraps. That all this effort has finally come to fruition is a great relief and many thanks are due to Tim Heap for all of his efforts and, of course, to English Heritage!

Update from the Planning and Preservation Sub-Committee
This is the first in a series of what we hope will be regular updates from the Planning and Preservation Sub-Committee, intended to keep you up to date with our activities. We keep in regular touch with the Elmbridge Borough Council Planning Department, and are automatically advised of any applications which involve Brooklands. During the last year, we have been involved in three such cases, a brief summary of which follows below.

Probably all members will be aware that in late 2000, Helical Bar, a UK based property development company, made an application to build a new office development at "The Heights" business park (this is the area from the southern boundary of the museum site down to the Wellington Way, and between the River Wey and the Sony UK/Proctor & Gamble offices). Although a very large number of objections were raised (something in the region of 1,000 in all), the application was ultimately approved. The reason for this was that, in fact, the original outline permission was granted in 1989, and this new application was simply to exercise it. Once such outline permission has been granted, it is very difficult to have it overturned at a later date. Sadly, this fight was lost over a decade ago. We have since established that, at present, no further outline permissions appear to exist for this area.

The development is now well and truly under way, and will result in four new office blocks being built along the East bank of the river Wey, plus a further block and a single storey car park adjacent to and extending on to the part of the Campbell Circuit leading to and forming the entrance to the museum.

We were also advised of an application by a property developer to demolish Lynton and Birchwood, the old bookings and site offices for Brooklands. The plan is that these will be replaced with detached houses. We are monitoring developments and are checking to see if the old turnstiles and any other relics remain in the grounds of these properties. The developer seems agreeable to us taking them if they do indeed still exist.

Finally, an application was made by "Grand Prix Academy", who operate a karting school in the central area of the circuit, to replace their present office, which is a marquee, with modular offices (that's Portacabins to the rest of us). The Society decided to object to this on the grounds that this represented a significant development over and above the original application, and established a worrying precedent. Unfortunately, we were unsuccessful, and the application was allowed. However, it has been established that the permission will expire at the end of 2006, at which point the operator will be obliged to remove the entire school and return the site to its prior condition.

The Planning and Preservation Sub-Committee is run by Tim Heap and Nick Plane.

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