A NORTH MP has labelled plans to open a new racecourse at an out-of-town site “impossible and undesirable”.

Redcar MP Vera Baird attended the annual meeting of the town’s racecourse yesterday and said she was convinced that plans to move the site elsewhere would not work.

She said: “I’m satisfied racing must stay in Redcar and this proposal for racing in Dunsdale is utterly impossible to achieve and totally undesirable.”

She said she went to the meeting with an open mind, but felt convinced investment should be made at the present course. Shareholders at the course have been at loggerheads over the future of the site for years after chairman Lord Mark Zetland said he hoped to develop land at Dunsdale, close to Guisborough, as a replacement site.

Campaigners believe Lord Zetland’s desire to set up a new course is a conflict of interest and said they had waited long enough for the chairman’s company, Voltiguer International, to buy them out, as promised.

Last year, after coming under immense pressure from the Redcar Racecourse Action Group, he said that if he did not get financial backing, he would reconsider his position.

However, yesterday, members of the action group felt they were no further forward, so again repeatedly asked Lord Zetland to step down.

Action group chairman Major Peter Steveney said: “It is very clear he can’t go on saying ‘if I don’t get the money then I will resign’, and then stay on year after year.

“Of course, he was asked repeatedly today to resign, but he is still there.

“However, we did achieve, from the board some commitment that they want to go on racing at Redcar until such time that someone makes them an offer.

“We have suggested they talk to other outside groups, such as big racecourse groups, to get backing for the present Redcar. But whether they will do that remains to be seen. We have got a good racecourse here, so let’s make it work.”

But Lord Zetland said last night he still believed a new venue was the way forward for Redcar Racecourse.

“I said I would consider resigning, and I did that, but there is no point in me resigning until I have finished my initiative,” he said.

“I was let down terribly by investors, but I’m looking elsewhere to build something very special for Redcar.

“I very much have the interests of racing at Redcar at heart. What I don’t want to see is Redcar go downhill and be unable to produce a new grandstand because it doesn’t have the money to do so.”