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Like a naughty kid who disobeys a parent, the Bermuda Motorcycle Racing Club had their toy taken away from them for not obeying the wishes of the Department of Sport.

There wasn't any motorcycle racing at Southside this past weekend as the club was locked out by Government over a safety issue.

The crux of the issue happened three weeks ago when the BMRC moved one of the new bleachers after being told not to.

Norbert Simons, director for the Department of Youth, Sports and the Environment, said: "If they're going to go against our wishes and do as they please then there's got to be consequences. Hopefully we'll have a meeting with them this week."

Simons said the track will remained close until that meeting and he's waiting to hear back from the BMRC as to when they can sit down at the table with the ministry.

He said the problem started a few weeks back as the ministry brought in some new bleachers.

"We met with them after we bought some new bleachers to try and improve the park and give them more seating. We were in the process of putting them together and we asked them 'please do not move them and that if they needed them to move, we would move them.'

"One of the bleachers was not completed, but they moved it."

Simons added the BMRC took the steps off another bleacher to complete the one they moved.

"People were sitting on the ones that were not completely put together," he said. "We'd asked them not to do it because it was a safety issue. As a result, rather than have people injured, we told them we're going to close it down (the track) until we have a meeting."

Simons said the motorcycle racing club asked if they could move the bleachers and were told flatly 'no.'

"The other ones got damaged because they were always being dragged. These bleachers are big and heavy so if they have to be moved then we have to lift them by a crane. It doesn't make sense to spend all this money on these bleachers to be dragged all over the place to get them damaged because then we're right back where we were before where we had a lot of damaged bleachers.

"Works and Engineering hadn't finished putting them together and we asked them to respect our wishes and not use those bleachers until everything is sorted."

The director added that was the only restriction put upon the club and he wanted to make sure they could race otherwise.

"That's the only issue we have with them. Any issues we've had in the past, in my view, have been resolved."

Paul DeCouto, a spokesperson for the Bermuda Motorcycle Racing Club, did not want to comment on the issue yesterday.

"We're having a meeting tomorrow night (Wednesday) to discuss everything and issue a press release on Thursday."[[In-content Ad]]

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