Vélo Birmingham moves to allay concerns over road closures and safety as local anger grows

A meeting of officers with CSM Active took place on Friday 23rd June to discuss options.  The outcome has not yet been announced, so watch this space or the media.    One assumes that any final proposal is awaiting political clearance. 

Barongreenback,

Good to read your contribution and I don't want to get too precious about surface dressing. Sorry you don't like your local roads, but Worcestershire ranks about 6th best in the country, so I suggest you also try Shropshire and Herefordshire. If you do take part, you will notice a difference when you leave Worcestersire on the B4214, and experience Herefordshire's roads...

You say there is no competitive element - but there is in the business challenge. See  

Fastest All Male Team
Fastest All Female Team
Fastest Mixed Team
Fastest Over 50’s Team

Seems to me some participants will be "competing"...

Suppose, if it was not competitive as you suggest, it took part over open roads? I accept there would be big phalanxes of riders, holding up traffic.  I saw exactly that a couple of week ago on the A443 alongside Witley Court, on part of the planned route. A big group of cyclists filling their lane, followed by a queue of 8-10 cars, all wanting to pass...

Might be worth suggesting it to CSM, so there is an alternative to cancellation - although then CSM won't be able to keep all your entry fees.

Well that just smacks a bit of a patronising politician's response, doesn't it? It's all in the eye of the beholder... because I know the bloke involved. Ahhh, OK.

I by-and-large agree with your points - it looks like CSM have chanced their arm. But if you can't read Shaw's words that you've quoted yourself and take even just a bit of an insinuation from them, I suggest your own grasp of English is a tad 'hazy'. There are plenty of other words he could have chosen to convey a risk of breakdown in resident-punter relations, without the slightest insinuation.

In reply to nuclear_didds, 

I cannot give you a complete reply on other Worcestershire councillors - there are 56 of them and I am not sure how many are affected.  

The officer view is as stated: CSM Active need to come up with their best efforts of mitigation and then there will be a political decision, probably taken by the Cabinet, of which I am currently a member.

Charles Shaw is reported to have said  “due to the anger within the local community disruptions, confrontations and the possibility of violence should not be ruled out.”' This is his opinion of the likely reaction to the race taking place, not what he would wish or would do himself. Those that took it as incitement have a hazy grasp of the English language. The person who said "finish him" sounds much more like someone inciting violence.

WCC maintains the roads for all users. You refer to surface dressing, where gravel is spread over a layer of tar before rolling. To get complete cover, an excess of gravel is needed and this is then removed by at least two passes of a vehicle that can recover the excess. Knowing the risk of skidding, the council posts low speed limits. Cyclists can read these as well and take appropriate action.

The use of surface dressing after patching extends the life of a road surface by a decade or more at a fraction of the cost of complete rebuilding. It therefore is a cost effective treatment that requires careful driving or cycling for a short period. 

This sounds very distressing all round. Cllr Pollock thank you for putting your point across in a straightforward manner. I am in favour of closed road events, I have done a few but not entered in this one. Obviously planning and consultation is a key thing. Based on your comments and the report it sounds like this has been lacking. I would have expected this to be covered long before now, more a comment to the organisers than the councils. 

 Re local businesses often such events can bring visitors to the region, so perhaps some local businesses can benefit, though I would expect that this event is attracting mainly locals so perhaps there is not much to gain. Again up front work would have made this better. It may sound silly but more than once I have cycled past places and gone back another day with my family for a visit, so perhaps with some care and thought the event can be used to promote the local area and healthy lifestyles etc. But it may be a bit late to do that now.

Ride London 100 looks to work well, are there lessons from that? I have ridden the Tour of Ayrshire and Cambridgeshire on closed roads and they look to work well, promoting the regions involved and bringing money into those regions hotels and tourist features.

What is certain is that throwing disrespectful comments at the local councils or residents will not help. Rather like dealing with the conflicts between different road users taking hard positions and throwing abuse seldom helps. What is needed is a bit of listening and respect for the parties involved.

So Cllr Pollock I hope that with some thought the issues for locals can be addressed in a reasonable manner and that the event can proceed. I personally worry about releasing that many cyclists onto roads without closing them. Will some drivers get impatient trying to pass what will be large bunches of cyclists? Will the disruption end up being as bad as the road closures? And as you point out you have allowed some cycling events to run, I hope to see the Tour of Britain stage you mention, so it is not like the council has refused to support cycling.

I hope that there are benefits for your region and that a solution is found. Oh and not all of us cyclists wish to be abusive to you and your colleagues.

It is distressing to read these comments about the reaction to VeloBirmingham from many of the residents and businesses in my County Council Division. As a Council, we support active travel like walking and cycling. Last week, we supported round 1 of the Tour Series in Redditch, over closed roads, and in September, we will be proud to host the last leg of the Tour of Britain, starting in Worcester and ending in Cardiff.

VeloBirmingham is something different. It would effectively close down a huge area of Worcestershire and some of Herefordshire for most of the day. It would cost many businesses thousands of pounds each. It would be hugely inconvenient for thousands of ordinary citizens. Why? All in the name of charity - that is what these people are sacrificing their lives and businesses for, so other peole can give to charity. Oh, and 15,000 people can have a jolly cycle ride through our brilliant countryside.

CSM Active have until mid June to come up with appropriate mitigation. If they don't, politicians like me will decide not to permit the closures and the event will either be cancelled or will be run over open roads - like 99.99% of all cycling in this country.

Given that I know Charles Shaw well, and know he was not in the least way inviting or encouraging violence, the reaction from some people writing on this blog does not endear me to the movement and will do nothing to help persuade me to support the event going ahead.

We live in a tolerant country but that also means we must be aware of inconvenience caused to others by our actions. CSM Active have been inconsiderate in their approach to the thousands who will "suffer" through this event - and their only response, in the paperwork I have seen, is to offer advice on how to get round the closures! Total strangers telling the residents how to mitigate the effect of closing some of the roads they know like the back of their hands. Amazing!

Or simply stating what might happen based on previous experience, pointing out that there is a risk and that planning is needed to deal with it? Isn't that what meetings are about, to highlight problems and come up with solutions?

Open roads is not what I paid for and I will be asking my credit card company to process a refund if they try to go ahead with less than the full event originally offered. I have a horrible feeling this is going to turn into a shambles. I have sympathy with the local residents if the local councils were not properly consulted but I was really looking forward to this. 

I'm paid up to do this and i'd be gutted if it turned out to be on open roads. I've given up on regular sportives due to traffic and try and only do closed roads ones - 2 x volathon wales and 2 x ride surrey...

I just can't believe the management company didn't consult and secure the closures first, what muppets!

As someone else said, they probably thought that with 15000 people signed up, the councils would have to give in...

A few of us have paid our money for this event as it is (a) local and (b) on closed roads.

However, this lack of consultation is ridiculous; I thought the farce of entering would be the worst screw up but apparently not. CSM even had the gaul to put WCC logo on their web-site as a partner along with Dudley and Herefordshire (and others); it's still there.

The WCC ward I live in has part of the route through it so I have asked my County Councillor for an update.

If it isn't a closed road then CSM need to give refunds so the event is the same as UK Cycling or Cyclists Fighting Cancer (28/5/17 from Stratford).

Having rode through Gt Witley at the weekend (just ahead of the HACC road race) as Timsen has said above I can't imagine the locals coming out with tacks or bats!

Whatever consents are in place I cannot believe that they will have the marshals & infrastruucture to properly close the roads over the whole route. Like some of the above, I think this has been poorly planned by a Company without the experience needed to run such an event.

I live on the route and haven't entered due to my misgivings but know many that have. Unless this is dealt with professionally I fear that it could generate a backlash against cyclists generally. Blame the Councillor if you like, but he is not the problem here, it's the arrogance of the marketing Company who see the growth of interest in cycling as a bandwagon to jump on.

As a matter of interest the local residents at Gt Witley put on a lunch to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Tour of the Abberleys, a 3 day event run by the LVRC over the May day weekend. There are many road races, triathlons and time trials that take place in that area (2 last sunday 14th May) There are local businessses and people who will gain nothing from this event and deserve to be consulted and treated with respect.

This was a disaster from the beginning. It all started when you had to log on to register at a aprticular time and then they didnt release the link for about another hour afterwards. - Obviously still registered to enter and paid up and will ride it though!

In fairness, having looked at the route, I can see why the councils are more than a little upset here. Ignoring the lack of consulation for a second, doing a full road closure on some of these roads is going to leave people completely cut off as the route uses the only decent roads in some of these places. 

I personally suspect that the organisers have pushed forward on this knowing they'd never have got the permission in the first place from the council and so are hoping that pressure can be used to make the council give retrospective permission.

is the councillor;
threatening violence?
inciting violence?
committing slander on those he should be representing?
in any case it appears to be an offence, unlike riding two abreast which appears to warrant the time of one motorbike cop and an additional unmarked car elsewhere.

So the conclusion of this is that the road closure agreement is still not there and they've pissed off people that will make the descion? That doesn't sound good.

As a cyclist and resident of Worcestershire, I have followed this story with acute interest and alarm, along with many other local cyclists.   

At last CSM have relented and decided to work constructively. It should never have reached this stage but at least a solution may be found.  The comments by the Head of Highways, as minuted, reveal the utter stupidity of CSM.  They have now been been brought to their senses. Compromise and pragmatism will hopefully see the event go ahead. This whole charade has been a text book case of how an event management company should not organise an event. It is utter folly to solicit expensive entry feeds from thousands of cyclists before a full and comprehensive agreement is reached with the relevant local authority and emergency services.  It could have gone very badly wrong. Sadly, their unacceptable behaviour has only sought to damage future legitimate attempts to deliver closed road events and harms the reputation of the wider cycling community.

Worcestershire could have exercised the nuclear option and still could.  Let us hope this has been a salutory lesson to CSM and other aggresive commercial sportive operators.  These events should be built on constructive dialogue to bring aboard communities and businesses by engaging them as partners and not road rollering them into subjugation. 

Thank you Ken for your helpful response, above. 

'Regarding Vélo Birmingham, parish councillor Charles Shaw was reported in the minutes of the meeting as having said that “due to the anger within the local community disruptions, confrontations and the possibility of violence should not be ruled out.”'

Suppose it's too much to hope the police will investigate this thug and his incitement to violence.

Beginning to think closed road events are more trouble than they are worth.

Bit of a fuck up if they've planned it expecting permission as opposed to gaining it 1st.

Arseholes

Didn't this event happen last year? And what has the Church of England go to do with it?