Yorkshire Motorsport Festival - the North's most spectacular motorsport & family event.
The 2022 Yorkshire Motorsport Festival has something for everyone, whether you’re a diehard motorsports enthusiast, a family looking for spectacular family fun day out, or a music lover wanting to hear the great bands that are planned, it’s all there on the same 125-acre site just outside Meltham and Holmfirth.
This information sheet has been prepared to provide you with details about the Festival and how it may affect you. If, after reading this, you still have any questions before the Festival, then please email us anytime at info@ymsf.net or text us on 07707 736939 weekdays between 09.00 and 17.00 and, in the meantime, we hope you will visit the Festival for an enjoyable day out.
Overview
The Festival will take place on 24th-26th June 2022 and will be a motorsport and transport themed ‘family fun’ event with a wide variety of family and specialist attractions, entertainment and displays. It will mainly be located on fields in the area bounded by Bradshaw Road, Thick Hollins Road and Wilshaw Mill Road, with the Motorsport and Music areas being at the opposite side of Bradshaw Road to the main Festival area bounded by Wolfstones Road.
Timing: The main Festival area will be open between the hours of 09.00 and 17.00 each day, with the music area staying open until 23.00 on the 24th and 25th June.
Car Parking: The car park will open at 08.00 and access to the Festival car park will be via Wilshaw Mill Road, where a new temporary field entrance has been installed into the parking area to minimise traffic passing residents' houses. Parking Stewards will be on duty to keep traffic moving.
Road Closures: In order to both set up and run the Festival and the Motorsport event safely it is necessary to close certain roads, or parts of them, from 08.00 on 20th June to 18.00 on 28th June 2022. These are detailed as follows:
- Wilshaw Mill Road – will be closed between Bradshaw Road and Australia Farm, thereby still enabling access for Wilshaw Mill Road residents from Wilshaw Road without having to pass through the closure barrier.
- Wickens Lane – will be closed between Lower Wickens Farm and Wolfstones Road, thereby allowing access to all residents on Wickens Lane by way of Upperthong or Dean Road.
- Bradshaw Road – will be closed between Wilshaw Road and Thick Hollins Road.
- Wolfstones Road – will be closed between Wilshaw Road and Bradshaw Road.
The road closures will be in place between 20th and 28th June with access for residents and landowners available with care (as there may be machinery working and obstructions in the road) to residents between 20th – 23rd June and 27th - 28th June 2022.
Emergencies
We have been in constant liaison with Kirklees Council and all the “Blue Light” agencies throughout the planning of the Festival, and any access required in such instances is fully covered in the planning for the Festival directly with all Emergency Services.
Traffic Management
A professional traffic management company, approved by Kirklees, has been employed by us to determine and sign optimal routes to and from the Festival. Also, in conjunction with Kirklees Highways, certain other key traffic management measures have also been identified, and will be implemented. These include temporary traffic lights on certain junctions, and a mobile ‘flying squad’ team to deal with any unexpected traffic build-ups. This is all to maximise the efficiency of traffic flows and thereby minimising emissions from visitors' vehicles.
We are also advising Festival visitors to avoid Holmfirth town centre wherever practicable, and additionally the villages of Upperthong and Netherthong will also be signed as ‘No Festival Access’ to prevent congestion on their narrow roads.
Litter, Noise and Disturbance
- Teams of locally sourced litter pickers will be in operation throughout the Festival to keep the area tidy.
- We are subject to the noise constraints imposed on us by both Kirklees Council’s Environmental Health regulations, and by Motorsport UK, motorsport’s governing body and the Festival will operate in full compliance with these requirements.
- Regardless of the expected Festival visitors being mainly families, Stewards and Security patrols will be in operation, again throughout the Festival, to ensure that there is no unruly behaviour and everyone behaves appropriately.
Environmental Matters
We are fully aware that Holme Valley Parish Council has declared a Climate Emergency and, that being a motoring / transport themed event, our event may be perceived as a challenge to that policy. The motorsport event itself in fact generates only a very small carbon footprint, with the biggest arising impact being from Festival visitors, simply coming for an enjoyable day out, as they would to a music festival, country show, football match, or indeed any other type of public event.
Unlike many other events however, we do want to mitigate our impact and to that effect we have introduced a number of measures to assist in this:
- The Festival will use both general waste and recycling waste bins, and encourage the proper use thereof, with the aim of at least 85% of waste being recyclable. Teams of litter-pickers will also be employed to ensure the Festival site and surrounding area is kept clean throughout and ‘left as we found it’.
- Food and refreshment vendors are being actively encouraged to minimise, and ideally completely replace, their use of any single use plastics and to provide food in recyclable containers, with wood cutlery rather than plastic.
- Generators for providing Festival power will have low emission engines running with an AdBlue emissions reducing additive.
- Use of public transport by visitors is being encouraged.
- Wherever possible we are using local contractors, suppliers, and businesses to assist with the Festival, thereby both reducing ‘miles travelled’ and supporting the local economy.
- As occurred last year, following the end of Festival, the event’s carbon footprint will be evaluated. The Festival Organisers met with Holme Valley Parish Council’s Climate Emergency Committee, and as promised last year initiated the YMSF Orchard Project to help mitigate the Festival’s footprint. This Project is proposed to run for at least the next 3 years and, apart from the climate mitigation aspects, will also look to involve the local community in ideas, operation and maintenance of the Orchards. Two potential Orchard Sites have been identified by the Festival Organisers with the assistance of local landowners. Any ideas or proposals that you may have in this respect would be warmly welcomed – please contact ian@ymsf.net
- The YMSF Orchard Project is, we believe, a unique initiative with regard to Festivals generally, but certainly unique in connection with Motorsport Festivals in the UK and demonstrates YMSF’s commitment to mitigating any Climate impact that may occur as a direct result of the operation of the Festival.
Tourism and Business
A final point is that we anticipate many of the Festival’s visitors will be from outside the immediate area, and as such it is a great opportunity to promote this lovely part of West Yorkshire to people unfamiliar with it, and thereby generate both immediate and future tourism and commercial revenue to the region and its businesses.
General Information re: Community Involvement
We endeavour to keep the Festival as local to the Meltham, Holmfirth and surrounding areas as we can, some examples of which are as follows:
- The team setting out on the Festival site, will be local
- The litter pickers (20) will all be local
- The car park stewards will be local
- Trade stands are predominantly from Yorkshire
- Restaurants and licensed premises last year reported brisk trade over the 3 days of the Festival
- Hotels and B & Bs are fully booked, as far back as Tankersley
- Supplying of goods, such as signage internally, at the Festival Site is supplied locally
- All water on site was supplied locally from Meltham and Shepley
- All toilet facilities are locally sourced
- Hospitality areas sponsored by local companies.
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