Newcastle lord mayor Nuatali Nelmes expects better bump-in if Supercars Newcastle 500 returns in call for feedback in survey

Cr Nelmes addressed the track construction while urging residents to participate in the council's survey about the future of the race, which is open until March 31.

Last weekend's event was the last in a 2016 agreement between council, Supercars and Destination NSW.

The Herald reported this week that business owner Neil Slater feared the decision whether to bring Supercars back for another five years was a foregone conclusion.

"They love it; they're going to do it," he said.

Cr Nelmes said "no decision has been reached on the future of the race".

She said "thousands" of people have responded to the survey. Council said every property in Newcastle will be letterbox-dropped with information on how to provide their feedback.

Consultation included people at the event being asked to complete questionnaires to "provide insight into the behaviours of racegoers, including their visitation to local businesses".

Telephone surveys of 600 residents and businesses also started this week and Cr Nelmes said focus groups would be held for residents and businesses to give "detailed feedback".

"We want to capture all of the feedback, the positive and the negative feedback," Cr Nelmes said. "We want to make sure that everyone has had an opportunity to have a say."

"What we want to measure is also the impact on particularly local residents and look at different methodologies potentially to ameliorate those impacts.

"But first and foremost will be overall feedback on whether the residents of Newcastle and the businesses believe that we should continue for another five years with Supercars in Newcastle."

Residents told the Herald the impact of this race was worse than previous years due to heavy traffic congestion during construction, a lack of communication from Supercars, confusion about road closures and clearway zones and safety concerns about the removal of raised pedestrian crossings weeks out from the race.

Cr Nelmes said she expected improvement if the race returned.

"It seems like the bump-in, particularly for this year's race was not handled as well as it has been in previous years," she said.

"The first three races that were done in successive years had very similar teams working on them from Supercars and the NSW Government and even from us here at the City of Newcastle.

"There was after a three and a half year hiatus, a significant change in personnel and I think some of that contributed to some hiccups that were definitely noticeable during the bump-in.

"If these hurdles are met in terms of the community consultation, Supercars and the NSW government having an agreement, then the City of Newcastle having an agreement... if the race was going to go ahead, based on feedback from all of those groups and agreement from all of those parties, that I would expect that period to be managed better than it was managed for this race."

Residents and businesses have also been critical of the survey questions, which include a multiple choice asking for the number one benefit and drawback of the event and if the respondent supported the race coming back for five years "if the annual total cost was no more than $1.6 million?".

Cr Nelmes said council sought "quite a significant investment with the consultants KPMG in a very robust methodology to ensure that we captured all of the feedback".

"There will always be critics of that feedback, I'm expecting that," she said. "But what we want to do is make sure everyone knows this consultation is open... and if they want to have a say this is the opportunity.

"This is the broadest, deepest consultation, we have done with industry, businesses, residents, visitors on this event, the Newcastle 500."

Have your say at haveyoursay.newcastle.nsw.gov.au/newcastle-500-community-survey

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