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Cycle Race Closures May Be Illegal
Open roads pressure group ACRE is challenging the measures being taken by Perth and Kinross Council to close an 81-mile stretch of Highland Perthshire to motor traffic on Sunday 18 May for the Etape Caledonia Cycle Race.
This action follows ACRE’s formal complaint to P&K that the shoddy and duplicitous way it has handled the controversial event amounts to maladministration. The organisation is also poised to take matters to the Local Authority Ombudsman pending the outcome of P&K’s internal enquiry into the issues that it has raised.
ACRE, which has more than 500 identified supporters and a legal fighting fund, is now asking lawyers whether there is a case for intervening to make sure roads remain open on 18 May, because proper authority has not been obtained for a traffic ban.
Race/No Race
A crucial issue is whether the event is strictly a cycle trial or a cycle race. At a number of meetings this winter, Etape Caledonia boss Kevin Stewart said the proposed event was emphatically not a cycle race. He told audiences at local closed-door meetings that a race would be deemed illegal under the legislation used by P&K. He said it would be a cycle trial, in which individual participants are timed against the clock.
Accordingly, P&K has invoked legislation under Section 16A of the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984 which is supposed to be used for cycle trials, not races.
Alas Etape Caledonia seem to have overlooked or forgotten this – even on their own website which refers to ‘Race Info’ and ‘Race Start Times’ etc.
And P&K has issued press releases referring to the event as a ‘race’.
Begging Bowl
Peter Hounam, one of ACRE’s organisers, said the issue was more than an academic one. “Legislation for cycle racing on public roads is carefully controlled and normally allows fewer than a hundred participants, not the 2000 expected here on 18 May,” he said.
“We know that official organisations supporting cycle trials in the UK have spurned Etape Caledonia because they consider the event a race. They also object to its blatantly commercial nature, and its cravenly proffering the begging bowl to Perth & Kinross Council - which has subsidised them two years running.”
Hounam added: “The question arises - why is Etape Caledonia holding a race disguised as a trial? If the event was a trial, the participants would be started over a period of, say, two to three hours and carefully timed. This way everyone has a chance to complete the 81-mile course at their own speed unimpeded by bunches of other competitors. This happens in all other such trials or cyclosportifs in the rest of the UK, and these are held on open roads because they are not regarded as dangerous.
“Etape Caledonia insists for purely commercial reasons upon this being a closed road event because it needs this USP (Unique Selling Point) to attract cyclists away from other events. Several others are being held on 18 May. To get support for closed roads it has, therefore, deliberately made the event more competitive and more dangerous than it needs to be, by making all the anticipated 2000 participants start in just 30 minutes from 7am to 7.30am. They are also seeding the faster competitors, who they desperately want to attract, so that they can race together.
“Hence they have tried and, we would argue, failed to tread a fine dividing line between making the event seem like a trial whereas it is in fact a race. It’s own website has let the cat out of the bag.”
P&K Ineptitude
ACRE has also taken advice from experts in the Scottish Executive and has a fighting fund for legal action if a valid case can be made. As it has always stated, it would back the race going ahead on open roads, with the competitors starting over a 3-hour period.
ACRE points out that P&K has also slipped up by closing wrong roads and failing to cover in its closure listing a vital section of the course. The official orders for last year’s race, as well the proposed coming race, closed the U162 up Glen Lyon (not on the Etape route) in mistake for the U179 Duneaves Road near Fortinghall, which is on the route.
Another blunder is that the Foss road, along the south side of Loch Tummel, is to be closed again this year, although the shortened race along this stretch has been abandoned by the organisers.
Human Rights
Through consultation with the Scottish Equality and Human Rights’ office in Glasgow, ACRE has confirmed that closure of the roads, where there is no alternative access, may be in contravention of Human Rights Legislation, Article 8; Article 1/Protocol 1, and Article 9. In addition, preventing people getting to church may be another infringement.
As a result of enquiries, a supporter of ACRE has accused the convenor of P&K Economic Development and Infrastructure Committee, C’llr John Kellas, as follows:
• By your, and your colleagues’ decisions, taken in the face of articulate and reasoned criticism you have limited thousands of residents and potential visitors in their free passage within the region in order to accommodate one particular business from outwith the region and one group of sportsmen/women and their adherents.
• You have, by closing the roads, blocked free passage to church of all residents and all potential visitors within the closed roads area.
• You have compromised businesses, residents, church-goers and tourists outwith the region because of the closure of roads.
• You knew before the 2007 event that there was considerable public opposition to the closed roads aspect of the event.
• You knew that there were businesses that suffered sometimes considerable financial loss during the 2007 event.
• You knew that residents were trapped in their houses or had to escape early to avoid the road closures during 2007 event.
• You have taken a decision that has allowed some businesses in Perthshire to profit at the expense of others.
• You have not run a properly constituted Public Consultation Process and have therefore not satisfied the requirements proposed by yourself and PK&C before another event would/could be considered.
• You have agreed “in principle” before the so-called Public (selective) Consultation had hardly begun.
• The conditions of your “Agreement in Principle” have not been met.
• You gave funding against loss in 2007 to a business from outside the region while disadvantaging businesses in your own area.
• You have agreed to give further funding to cover loss to this particular external business while businesses in your own region are suffering because of your decision.
• You have said that some businesses within Perthshire are profiting while others are unable to benefit.
• By use of terms such as overwhelming, consensus and majority you are ignoring the evidence and opinion presented since before 2007 event.
Meanwhile massive efforts by the council, the event organisers and by local proponents of the closed road race, are being made to overcome the problems demonstrated last year, when the closures shut large parts of Highland Perthshire down.
The co-operaion of some locals with this programme is already being claimed by P&K in the media to indicate support for the closed road race. But, off the record, some of those contributing to the merrymaking acknowledge that they do deplore the closure of the roads and the impact that this has. However, they maintain that they are making the best of a fait accomplis, and they wish to display the hospitable face of Highland Perthshire to weekend visitors.
Weekend Family Events
The evening before the Etape, a Pitlochry Pasta Ceilidh will be held in a marquee next to the start/finish car park, featuring a live band and as much pasta as people can eat, with tickets costing £5 (under-14s free).
On the Sunday, the marquee will host cooking demonstrations with Nell Nelson, music from the Vale of Atholl Pipe Band and Fred the Fiddler, and a battle re-enactment by the Hairy Highlanders group. Kids will be kept entertained by Silly McBee the Clown and a novelty bike show. There will also be stalls promoting all the areas within Highland Perthshire.
Acupuncture and sports massage will also be on offer in the Competitors’ Village Marquees from 9am-4pm.
Spectators will be able to watch the cyclists twice along the route by catching a special bus from Pitlochry to Kinloch Rannoch, and back again. New Etape race viewing points have also been set-up at the House of Menzies and the Safari Lodge at Dull. The Upper Tay Paths Group is opening a new route for walkers and cyclists to travel between Aberfeldy and Kenmore on the morning of the Etape and visit the businesses along the route without using the closed road.
Free refreshments will be available at The Safari Lodge Farm Shop (bacon roll and coffee) and at the House of Menzies (scone and a coffee). Entertainment at these two venues will carry on well into the afternoon.
Blair Castle will be hosting family Land Rover tours, a children’s tour of the castle, a falconry display and cake decorating workshops on Saturday 17 May to keep pre-race crowds entertained. On the Sunday the castle is holding a Behind Closed Doors Attic Tour, showing visitors artefacts and rooms not normally seen.
The Courtyard deli’, gift shop, restaurant and bar in Kenmore is having an ice cream extravaganza over the weekend to celebrate the Etape. From 9am-6pm on the two days they will be handing out free ice creams to race spectators.
On the Saturday a Fun Day is being held in Kinloch Rannoch, with a hog roast, music and entertainment. On the same day the Highland Perthshire market will pitch up at Mill of Logierait Farm near Ballinluig between 10am-2pm.
On the Sunday, Victoria’s Restaurant in Pitlochry is opening from 6am so cyclists and spectators can fuel up for the day ahead. Spectators can wind down after the event by taking part in a Bluebell Walk at Craig Wood, Dunkeld, hosted by Atholl Estates Ranger Service.
Fun & Entertainment
C’llr John Kellas, said: “There is a going to be a huge amount of fun and entertainment on offer for visitors, making the Etape an event for all the family and not just an event for cyclists.”
SEE ALSO:
Protest Protocol - Advice from ACRE
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