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Battle Continues to Stop May Road Closures
Road Rage as P&K Spends £27k on Cycle Marathon
Perth and Kinross’s controversial decision to back another Etape Caledonia cycle marathon has strengthened the determination of the ACRE (Against Closed Road Events) campaign supporters.They have resolved, if necessary, to take action through the courts to keep roads free for use by everyone in the area, and are gathering and seeking more donations for its fighting fund.
The Enterprise and Infrastructure Committee heard a delegation from ACRE at its meeting on 30 January, ignored ACRE’s alternative proposal for an open road cycle event with proceeds going to charity, and voted to spend £27,000 supporting London-based organiser Etape Caledonia’s plans for a marathon on 18 May.
The council has extracted a few grudging concessions from Etape so that the race will now start at 7am and average speeds will be raised to slightly reduce road closure timings. Unfortunately, as last year’s experience showed, the marathon has the effect of shutting down Highland Perthshire to visitors for the whole day – losing dozens of businesses large sums of money.
ACRE’s delegation made this point strongly in its submission to the committee but councillors had already agreed behind closed doors to ignore the mounting opposition to Etape’s proposals. Local councillor Ken Lyall was the only voice critical of the company and told the meeting: “I really feel that I have to be critical of the… promoter as I felt he was not interested in compromise and, to my mind, gave vague and inaccurate reasons.”
Peter Hounam, one of the ACRE delegates who addressed the meeting, was not surprised the decision was railroaded through, and countered press stories that the delegation had stormed out in protest. He commented: “A couple of our delegation left because, if they had stayed they would not have been able to remain silent at the utter lack of interest the committee members showed in our concerns and our well-thought-through proposal that the cycle race could be run just as successfully, if not more so, on OPEN roads. This would allow the many businesses that will have to close to remain open.
“ACRE does not represent ‘a small vocal minority’, as some critics including the council like to make out. We already have over 450 signatures to our petition and many of these people have pledged £50 to keep the fight going. We are now planning the next stage in our campaign - including the possibilities of legal action against P&K. We invite more people to support our stand and, if possible, to pledge funds so that this injustice can be rectified.”
P&K’s ‘Dirty Dealings’
ACRE has been fired up by what is sees as the duplicitous conduct of Perth & Kinross Council which promised community consultation, followed by a carefully worked through review process before another closed road event would be sanctioned. But then it allowed Etape Caledonia to bring forward this year’s date to May 18, compressing the timescale and turning the consultation process into a shambles.
Angry meetings at which large numbers of people objected to the closures made no difference. Officers and councillors reported back to the P&K high command in Perth that opposition was only coming from a small group of hotheads.
A meeting to gauge the views of local businesses was held in November but a few hours earlier the P&K Enterprise and Infrastructure Committee had jumped the gun and agreed to support Etape ‘in principle’.
ACRE warned the public not to heed mealy-mouthed councillors like John Kellas, convenor of the E&I committee, who claimed the issue was as yet undecided. By this stage it was obvious that Etape and P&K were joined at the hip and railroading through the project.
Fast forward to January 30 when the committee met again. A lengthy officers’ report had the effrontery to state: “The consultation process has clearly indicated that the vast majority of businesses and the community support the event. However there are a small number who are totally opposed to road closures...”
The report provided none of the promised solutions for businesses situated on closed roads that will get no customers on 18 May. Nor was any compensation on offer from the council’s coffers. In a snub to all those who thought P&K would redress the mistakes of last year when it gave Etape a present of £20,000 to cover its own losses, it recommended shelling out another £12,000 to Etape this year. It also recommended spending a further £15,000 for promotion of the area.
Councillor Kellas had, at first, tried to stop ACRE sending a delegation to address the E&I committee but then he found he did not have the powers. The delegation pointed out to the meeting that some members had a very direct reason for being against the closure of roads: their businesses dotted among the glens and lochs of Highland Perthshire would lose literally thousands of pounds.
Others were frustrated and concerned because the access to their properties would be barred for a significant part of a summer Sunday, or their organisations - including several churches - would be severely disrupted. There was also a passionately held feeling this council has acted badly over this matter, having failed in its promise to properly consult the people, and misrepresented the level of local opposition.
ACRE said P&K’s ‘fact gathering’ was seriously flawed, obscuring the costs and the disbenefits borne by local enterprises and residents. A survey conducted by Comment after last year’s event showed that 80% of local people were dissatisfied or very dissatisfied with pre-event communication; 50% said the event should definitely NOT be repeated; 17% said probably not - and only 24% were supportive.
The steering group set up by the council to solve these problems had been a fiasco, marked by angry rows, and producing virtually no viable ideas. C’llr Kellas had said last October: “If we cannot eliminate sufficient of the issues then so be it, and I will support cessation.” ACRE called on him to keep that promise, because tinkering with road closure timings, or offering promotional packages, had in no way either addressed or eliminated any of the issues. He ignored the call to honour his promise.
Towing the SNP line, he totally ignored ACRE’s arguments and its proposal for the marathon to be held on open roads, as happens elsewhere in the UK. He then gave a rambling address to the committee stating his whole-hearted support for Etape. He made no criticism of the company - even though two months earlier it had jumped the gun and begun selling entry tickets for the event at £49 a time, an act that ACRE had described as premature and provocative.
There IS an Alternative
ACRE has come under fire since its campaign was launched late last year. Typical of those criticising it on the commentonline blog is James who wrote: “All the ACRE campaign has succeeded in doing is to show Highland Perthshire to be a very negative and unwelcoming place, and to portray the people as a load of mean spirited NIMBYs.”
On 1 February in the Perthshire Advertiser, editor Alison Lowson commented: “I really can’t get my head around this week’s anti-Etape Cycle race protest… What’s a few hours of inconvenience to road users and church-goers compared to the long-term benefits of being chosen to host such a prestigious event?”
ACRE anticipated this backlash and has always had an answer to the jibe of negativity. Its supporters would cheerfully encourage open road cycle events, and took the trouble to examine what happens elsewhere in the UK, where all such events – called ‘sportifs’ - are run on open roads.
Typical is the Fred Whitton Challenge, the first in the country, which is run by volunteers with no subsidies along120 miles of narrow roads in the Lake District. After paying all expenses, giving the riders two meals en route plus a free meal at the end, paying for mountain rescue and all other costs, they made a surplus of £35,000 for charity.
Significantly, the 1000 riders pay £30 - not £49 as charged by Etape Caledonia - and they can start when they like from 5.30am to 9am. In the Challenge’s history, there has been NO serious accident or any complaint from the police.
As ACRE pointed out to the E&I committee, nobody from Perth & Kinross had even considered such alternatives and were blindly backing Etape Caledonia for which a closed road event was simply a lucrative ‘USP’ – unique selling point – aimed at enabling it to ‘outdo’ the competition. By backing Etape Caledonia, ACRE maintained, the local authority was turning something that elsewhere was a voluntary pastime into a commercial moneymaking enterprise.
ACRE promised the council that its members and supporters would gladly help to run a cycle event in which any surplus goes to charity provided that it was on open roads. There would then be no need for tens of thousands of pounds in public subsidies. None of this has made any impact on the P&K bureaucracy.
ACRE is calling for everyone who agrees with its stance, and has yet to ‘sign up’, to make contact with the campaign. Peter Hounam can be contacted at peterhounam@mac.com Contributions to campaign funds, or pledges of financial should legal/professional fees be incurred, can be directed to ACRE at OffiZone, 2 Kenmore Street, Aberfeldy PH15 2BL. Donations of cash support can be made at any branch of the TSB to ACRE, sort code 30-25-87, account no: 00687706
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