Dorset Council has approved plans to demolish Clay Pigeon Raceway near Dorchester and replace it with 226 chalets. The decision puts one of the UK’s few venues for the sport’s lower-level events on course for redevelopment, even as the circuit keeps advertising racing through the end of 2026.
Dan Parker at Dorset Council
The planning committee voted five to three, with one abstention, on Tuesday. Dan Parker, head of Karting Motorsport UK, told councillors: "The venue has played an important part in British karting for decades and has supported the development of competitors, officials and volunteers, clubs and all their families throughout the south west and far beyond."
That is the immediate change for the venue. Clay Pigeon Raceway, founded in the late 1950s, now faces demolition at a site behind the George Albert Hotel on the A37, where the redevelopment area also includes a static caravan park and a disused clay pigeon shooting ground.
Lewis Hamilton and Clay Pigeon
The track’s sporting value was central to the objection from Parker and others who see it as more than a local circuit. Dan Parker said there were only six or seven other venues in the country able to host the type of events held at Clay Pigeon, and the site has also been part of the early careers of Lewis Hamilton, Lando Norris and Jensen Button.
According to its website, Clay Pigeon Raceway has hosted nearly every major championship to tour Britain. The redevelopment would end that use at a venue built on a disused World War Two military hospital, and it would remove a circuit that has served competitors, officials, volunteers and families across the south west.
Alex Brenton and Rory Major
Alex Brenton said the site was an isolated location for a holiday park and that she would support keeping the racetrack. Rory Major took the opposite line, saying: "It's up to the site owner and they don't want to continue the race track use," which was the basis for the committee majority that backed the plan.
The circuit still advertises racing events until the end of 2026, so the practical question now is what happens to those fixtures while the redevelopment moves ahead. For drivers, clubs and volunteers who have treated Clay Pigeon Raceway as a working karting venue, the vote has shifted the site from active track to holiday park before the racing calendar has run out.
