City of Newcastle says it is spending $1.6 million each year on the Newcastle 500, a figure hotly disputed by east end residents opposed to the race's location.
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In response to questions about how much the race was costing ratepayers, the council issued a media statement on Friday outlining financial costs and benefits associated with the Supercars weekend.
It said the "$1.6 million annual events budget for the Newcastle 500" included a licence fee, "all operational costs, including traffic and waste management, communications, all event works specific to the event, and staff resources".
"It also includes a program of events, activations and promotions to encourage patronage to businesses outside the race precinct," the statement said.
Supercars had made "no requests ... for infrastructure works since the initial civil project" to build the track.
The council must provide storage space to Supercars under the terms of its agreement with the race promoter, but it said there were "no ongoing costs for City of Newcastle for storage of event delivery infrastructure for the Newcastle 500 after a lease with [engineering firm] UGL ended earlier this year".
A Newcastle East Residents Group spokesperson said the council had not itemised the costs and the $1.6 million was a "gross underestimation".
NERG has obtained under freedom-of-information laws a council "project charter" for the race which includes a 2018-19 budget of $1.609 million, comprising project management costs of $1.359 million and $250,000 for "provision of services during event".
The project management budget includes money for a project manager, a special events officer, community engagement, $550,000 for "materials and contracts" and other costs.
The NERG spokesperson said the budget did not appear to include ratepayers' money spent on repairing and modifying the track each year, repairs and changes to Foreshore Park, VIP and staff parties during the race weekend, storage and the estimated $500,000-a-year licensing fee.
The council resurfaced parts of the track in March, the third time in 18 months it had completed such work on the circuit, but said at the time this was "routine maintenance".
NERG also discovered via a separate FOI request that the council had spent $638,000 on storing Supercars equipment in 2017 and $244,000 in the race's second year.
The council's three-year storage contract with UGL expired on November 30.
The spokesperson said the total annual costs could be $4 million, but it was difficult to tell from the available public information.
"NERG and the independent councillors have repeatedly asked CN to release details of the costs of this event to ratepayers," the spokesperson said.
"Releasing costs through a media release is a cynical attempt by CN to meet the criticisms coming from the community to release full details of the costs of this event year by year."
The council said the $1.6 million costs represented 5.3 per cent of the $30.1 million economic injection into the city as calculated by a Hunter Research Foundation Centre study last year.
That study's findings have come under fire from retired University of Newcastle professor Dr Janet Aisbett, Greens councillor John Mackenzie and transport consultant Ron Brown.
The council statement took a veiled swipe at resident opposition to the race, saying it was spending "tens of thousands of dollars" cleaning up "vandalism and malicious damage in protest to the event".
"This includes poisoning of turf, graffiti on fencing and other infrastructure, and the use of potentially damaging materials such as oil and diesel dumped around the suburb and parks."
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