Greens councillor John Mackenzie has accused Supercars of deliberately trying to avoid scrutiny and consultation on new dates for the Newcastle 500 race weekend.
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The Newcastle Herald reported on Monday that Supercars and City of Newcastle were poised to announce May 20, 21 and 22 as the new dates for this year's race.
Council chief executive officer Jeremy Bath said in a memo to councillors on Friday that "I hope to have a date for you Monday", before a council vote on Tuesday.
He told the Newcastle Herald on Monday that he would present a new date to councillors "if I have an agreed date with Supercars and Destination NSW".
The race was scheduled for early March then moved to an unspecified date due to COVID concerns.
Mr Bath's Friday memo said councillors risked causing more disruption to Newcastle East residents and businesses if they did not make a decision on Tuesday.
"Receiving approval for a date in February will provide Supercars the required time to make the arrangements to deliver a five-week bump-in ... ," he wrote.
"However, should the decision on a date not be made for a further month, then it is likely to be insufficient to secure the contractors with the necessary experience to deliver the abbreviated bump-in."
Cr Mackenzie said on Monday that the new date had been "negotiated behind closed doors with no involvement of councillors or the community".
"The 11th-hour announcement from Supercars is clearly timed to prevent proper scrutiny of changes to the service agreement or to allow councillors to consult with the impacted businesses and community," he said.
"Council meeting dates are no secret, and Supercars have had more than a month to develop an alternative plan.
"Instead of diligent planning, we get a last-minute proposal presented as a fait accompli and warned, if we don't agree, then the disruption of the bump-in period will be extended."
Independent John Church agreed that councillors had been kept in the dark and would not have enough time to evaluate the new dates.
"The services deed we had with Supercars expired on December 31 last year," he said.
"We haven't seen or been advised of any updated services deed, so I'm a bit concerned about that.
"The previous council in 2016 endorsed entering into a five-year agreement, not a five-event agreement.
"That has also expired, so that authority from council has expired."
Newcastle had been tipped to host a final-round event this year after moving from March, but Labor has promised to bring Supercars back to Adelaide as a season finale this year if it wins next month's South Australian election.
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