racing until a permanent home is completed.

Sports Minister Dennis Lister met with members of the club late last week to discuss plans to move them from Southside Raceway to Clearwater Beach.

Club members are due to be evicted from their current home in a matter of weeks to allow for development work to be carried out.

This would leave them homeless as Government's preferred venue for the bikers, Number One Gate at Kindley Field, is yet to be constructed.

The venue at Clearwater Beach, which borders the coastline and the airport perimeter, would need considerable work carried out on it before racing could get underway.

The Royal Gazette understands resurfacing the the area with tarmac to improve safety for the high-powered machines would cost tens of thousands of dollars.

On top of that, fencing and barriers would need erecting and other measures carried out to bring the area up to the standard currently enjoyed at Southside.

The club also faces the problem of how to charge an entrance fee with the area also used by sunbathers getting to the nearby beach.

Lister said Government was aware of all the issues and was in the process of addressing them. "We have met to work out what would be for the best considering the circumstances they are in right now,'' he said.

"What we are doing is working with them to find a location that will work as a suitable location in the interim.

"Their permanent home has been identified at another location, but that area is still to be dealt with -- development is still a distance away. So wherever their move is we have to try and make sure that it's one that everyone can live with for the time being.'' It is understood estimates for the cost of resurfacing the area are currently being drawn up -- but Lister said he couldn't say if or how much money might be pumped into the area.

"We are looking at what is actually needed. It may not necessarily be direct funding -- it may be use of some services. That's all part of us coming together to try and identify what their actual needs are and where assistance will be required,'' he said.

Lister said he didn't want to say how long it would take for the club to move into a permament base -- but he insisted Clearwater wasn't it.

"They have been assured this is only a temporary home,'' he said.

"I wouldn't want to put a timeframe on it. As I said the whole process is in the negotiation stage -- we are still talking quite a bit and ... everybody around the table who I sit with is well aware of where this thing is today.'' Asked why Government had offered Clearwater and was considering spending not unsubstantial sums of money on it if the club were moving to a permament home sometime in the future, Lister said: "Let's put it this way. We can move them out of where they are tomorrow. That's not we meaning Youth and Sport but their landlord can move them out of where they are tomorrow and then they are going to sit on a wall.

"Do you want them sitting on a wall or do you want them still racing? The answer is that we would like for them still to race. So if we still want them to race we have to find them something temporary until their project is ready.''