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P&K Juggernaut Clears Way for Etape 2008
They’ve done it again! P&K Council is bulldozing through the highly controversial scheme to close Highland Perthshire’s roads next summer to facilitate a second cycle marathon run by south of England firm Etape Caledonia.
Barring an earthquake, the event will take place next May on a prime summer Sunday, with only lip service being paid to the much vaunted consultation process promised by councillors over and over again in recent months .
As part of this consultation process councillors and P&K officials met with local businesses in Weem Hotel on the evening of 28 November to hear widespread concern that the marathon will cause them substantial losses – as it did with last June’s event. But their worries that the event is more of a disbenefit unless it is used to attract people to the area in fallow tourist months - such as March or November - were a waste of breath.
Hours earlier P&K’s Enterprise and Infrastructure Committee had met in Perth and preempted the whole process by agreeing ‘in principle’ that the event should go ahead. Furthermore, it was agreed ‘in principle’ and ‘to facilitate discussion’ that the date will be Sunday, 18 May.
Surprise, surprise! Jumping the gun, Etape Caledonia had been advertising this date on its website since mid-November, and was already taking bookings from entrants on that basis.
The man at the centre of this democratic debacle is Strathtay C’llr John Kellas, the convenor of the P&K Economic Development & Infrastructure Committee, who for weeks had been issuing promises that no premature decision would be taken. In the process he gave assurances that full account would be made of local concerns.
C’llr Kellas tried to play down the significance of his committee’s decision at a heated meeting of a cycle marathon steering group, assigned to assess the merits of Etape’s proposal, held in Aberfeldy town hall on 5 December. “All we did was decide in principle that discussions about holding a marathon would continue,” he tried to tell the meeting.
He was angered when accused of making a mockery of the consultation process and misleading everyone about what his committee had actually decided. Steve Thomas, from river rafting firm Freespirits, produced the 28 November committee report on the proposal which Kellas and his colleagues had adopted. This referred to “an in-principle approval for the event to proceed in 2008.”
With further taunts that this had made it a fait accompli, C’llr Kellas maintained that another meeting would be held in January at which his committee might still kill off the event if the ongoing consultation convinced them.
Kevin Stewart, representing Etape Caledonia, had difficulty giving the steering group an outline of his detailed plans for the May 18 event because of interruptions. He said he had to be careful not to describe it as a ‘race’ as that would make it illegal. He said it was a time trial, although the hoped for 2500 participants would all be setting off within a 30 minute period.
He acknowledged there are many successful cycle events throughout the country in which roads were not closed. “Closure makes ours a unique event in the UK,” Kevin Stewart said. “That is a crucial factor in persuading people to come to Highland Perthshire.”
A group of businesses and others concerned at the lack of consultation have formed a group to challenge the council’s decision. It is meeting in Legends Coffee House next Friday evening at 7pm.
*Dictionary definition of ‘Juggernaut’: a force that is relentlessly destructive, crushing and insensitive.
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