Noisy motorbikes aren’t everyone’s idea of entertainment. But neither are pop festivals, agricultural shows or tea-dance coaching holidays.

Pretty much every aspect of the Island’s destination appeal went into deep freeze in March when Covid-19 hit. That was absolutely necessary, as is the abundance of caution with which life is slowly getting back to something approaching normality.

Only recently, plans for what was billed as a socially-distanced August Bank Holiday music festival bit the dust when IW Council safety advisers, backed by very many Islanders, saw boundaries being stretched and gave it the thumbs down.

Summer 2020 tourism has been hit hard; and 2021, pandemic permitting, needs to see a bounce back. Very many livelihoods depend on it.

This is the context in which proposals for the Diamond Races, a motorcycle event modelled on the Isle of Man TT races, should be seen.

Of course there are safety concerns which will need to be dealt with. The residential nature of the inland section of the circular route, for example, presents specific challenges.

And I daresay steps will be taken to dissuade spectators from standing in the field next to that double bend just east of Atherfield coastguard cottages, where no one who knows the road would dream of doing more than about 45. The “fast five-mile stretch” of the Military Road might need a spot of expectation management — did someone say 210mph?

And yes, there will be disruptions to people’s daily routine. Not a patch on what happens with the pop festival every June, but road closures and noise over four days nonetheless.

But this is an example of the price which has to be paid if the Island isn’t to subside into a retirement ghetto, with young talent migrating elsewhere and rural deprivation the lot of those who remain. It’s what’s happened here for far too long.

MP Bob Seely complains that “Press releases do not amount to community engagement”, which rather invites a review of his own modus operandi. The comment also overlooks the fact that letters from the organisers were, in fact, put through letterboxes along at least part of the route in the few days preceding the publicity announcement.

In less enlightened times the pop festival concept was fought tooth and nail because “it’s not what we want here”. Mr Seely will be well aware of the fate which befell one of his predecessors, the late and largely unlamented Mark Woodnutt, who learned the hard way what happens if sectional interests and social conservatism are pursued too far; while Andrew Turner learned the same lesson in an even more brutal way.

So far as the matter in hand — motorcycle racing — is concerned, it’s not so much what we want, or what we like, as what we need.

As an October event it stretches the season — an economic imperative — and should bring large numbers of people to stay, and spend, on the Island who wouldn’t do so otherwise.

The council has got this one right, and I think most Islanders — including many of us who normally have little time for this administration — recognise that.