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Velothon Wales 2015 routeFirst Minister criticises Velothon Wales communications strategy
Carwyn Jones, First Minister of Wales, has said that the organisers of Velothon Wales should have communicated information relating to road closures sooner. Traders are complaining that closed roads will cost them thousands with some wondering why compensation has not been made available.
The 140km sportive and the professional race that follows will go through Cardiff, Newport, Torfaen, Monmouthshire and Caerphilly and a number of roads will be shut.
While the organisers, Lagardere, say they have spoken to hundreds of businesses about the likely disruption, David Pell, who owns The White Hart Village Inn at Llangybi, told the South Wales Argus that he was unaware of the implications until recently. “My insurance will not cover this and as a small business which has recently opened this is intolerable,” he said before asking why compensation had not been made available.
Wedding organiser Carol Night said she had heard about the closures in February. Nevertheless, she is unhappy that two weddings will be affected. “Whilst we aren’t opposed to events like these it would have been nice to have been consulted with. We were only told about it in February and our wedding couple had booked the date in 2013.”
Velothon Wales has agreed to allow the bridal car to travel from Griffithstown with a moto escort to get to the hotel and then to Usk Castle following the ceremony.
Wales Online reports that First Minister Carwyn Jones has said that Velothon organisers should have spoken to residents and businesses sooner.
“Things, I think, should have been done a lot earlier in terms of the organisation’s communication, but, nevertheless, we’re confident now that, having facilitated the round-the-table discussions, we will be in a position where the public will be informed as quickly as possible of what the consequences of the event are.”
A spokeswoman for Velothon Wales said that the event is expected to bring a £2 million boost to the Welsh economy overall, but admitted that some businesses would suffer difficulties on the day. She said that the aim was to keep disruption to a minimum.
“We have been engaging with hundreds of businesses and thousands of residents along the route to inform them of the event and associated road closures so they can plan around it. Full details are on the Velothon Wales website.”
Alex has written for more cricket publications than the rest of the road.cc team combined. Despite the apparent evidence of this picture, he doesn't especially like cake.
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16 comments
I want a high5 from anyone who sees me rocking my road.cc socks at the Welsh Velothon...
say this had been an open road event would 15K still have signed up and if so surely the impact would have been the same ?
I would not have, I would have done last weekend's Dragon instead...I know of 4 people for whom this will be the first mass sportive, having completed minor ones previously...
There were articles in the local press as far back as August. Including a map. How much notice do they need?
The route was different in August.
There is a general misperception of the difference between 'consulting' and 'informing'. How many residents and businesses will there be on a 140km route? From my own experience, trying to consult with just a handful of people is incredibly time consuming, trying to speak to everyone individually affected by this event (or any other using public roads) would be impossible.
As fuzzywuzzy says, the general response will be "send it somewhere else", so not very constructive.
I can see why you'd be pissed off as a trader affected by this but I'm not sure what they'd really expect from being consulted better on it. All the traders would want the route to go elsewhere and unless the event was cancelled it would have to go somewhere. There's not really much that could be done in the way of compromise and compensation is a non-starter really.
Whinge whine whinge - Britain's only remaining glory,
The pub's been there hundreds of years and even in its current guise as a restaurant, has been there at least five years
The pub re opened under new owners on 20th April
https://www.facebook.com/whitehartvillageinn
I guess they are missing their Sunday lunch trade.
Doesn't mean to say he didn't buy it recently from its previous incumbent....so what is your point? You don't know what his financials are.....
Admittedly the sum effect maybe nothing, but that doesn't stop him worrying.
'Velothon Wales has agreed to allow the bridal car to travel from Griffithstown with a moto escort to get to the hotel and then to Usk Castle following the ceremony.'
That sound like quite a good wedding feature. Do wonder how the other guests follow though.
Why don't all the cyclists make a surprise visit to congratulate them?
Oh, the irony if the bridal car gets punctured going over the (promised/threatened) tacks
As a participant in this event I am not very happy with the event communications either. Still I have enjoyed the SPAM selling insurance and other cycling related projects.
I've just found out, the man behind this Andrew Taylor - Event Director. Also ran the Etape Caledonia from 2007-2010....Oh yeah, he's learnt ALOT from his position there
They went into that, closed all the roads and then wondered why people were pissed off at not being told.