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news
Tour o The Borders startTour o' the Borders organiser says decision to drop charges against 'stick-gate' farmers not a "green light" to attack cyclists
The organiser of the closed road sportive the Tour o’ the Borders says that the decision to drop charges against two men alleged to have hit participants in last year’s event with sticks should not be seen as a “green light” to attack cyclists.
Neil Dalgleish, the event director of the sportive that attracts 2,000 cyclists each year to Peeblesshire, was reacting to the news reported on our live blog this morning that the procurator fiscal – Scotland’s equivalent of the Crown Prosecution Service – had decided not to proceed with prosecution of two farmers, aged 60 and 71, who had been charged by police in connection with the incident.
The pair, thought to be protesting against the event resulting in roads being closed during harvest season, had been filmed by action cameras used by some participants in the event in September 2017 apparently hitting out at some of the cyclists taking part in the Tour o’ the Borders.
> Farmer who stopped Borders sportive says the event is "a waste of police time"
Dalgleish acknowledged that while some might be angered that proceedings will not be taken any further, the individuals concerned had “learned their lesson,” highlighting that this year’s edition, which took place earlier this month, had passed off without incident.
“There are many who think it’s unacceptable that there’s no prosecution here, that no-one was brought to justice for an (alleged) act of violence towards people who were innocently riding their bikes,” he said. “I can certainly see their point.”
“But,” he continued, “I don’t think this is a green light for violence towards cyclists, nor a sign that it’s okay to bully us. My take is that those responsible have learned their lesson – I bet they got a fright with the police at their doors and legal charges against them. Let’s think positive and believe attitudes are moving on a bit.”
Speaking of this year’s edition, he said: “It was a huge relief that we had no repeat of last year’s incident, and we’re extremely keen to minimise any problems or conflicts – of course we understand that the road closures can cause inconvenience.
“It’s great to see more support and acceptance for the event and for the importance of cycle tourism in this area. The riders got a fantastic reception all the way around the route – no-one was made to feel unwelcome this year.”
The event will return next year on Sunday 1 September, with further details available here.
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
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25 comments
That doesn't follow.
The point being that a lack of charges is no indicator of whether there is any “wrong”.
Aye I know the point you were trying to make, but the original point was that if there was no legal wrong-doing then there is little potential for prosecution. If there was cause to prosecute there is still no guarantee that one would proceed - so the converse is not true.
I often think with cases like this it's not the actual incident in isolation,which didn't really amount to a hill of beans to be worried about, it's the culmination of all those close passes,those stupid overtakes,the bad attitude most people have as a whole to cyclists and cycling in general in the UK that we all feel if you've ridden for any length of time on the road,that simply boils over in frustration when the likes of Farmer McGiles acts like this and it appears to get accepted by the authorities that's all ok.
It's hard not to feel a cyclists lot is not a happy one
stan14 - I think part of your problem maybe that you're attempting to ask questions and process the information prior to lighting the torch and whipping the ol'pitchfork out. That's not generally how it's done around here.
So... in response to the one-post wonders whom, I'm sure, will be adding greatly to this little online community in the near future...
https://road.cc/content/news/229032-farmer-who-stopped-borders-sportive-...
Participants in the sportive say they were hit with sticks. @bluride: if you're growing increasingly frustrated at contemporaneous comments from participants, you might want to talk to someone.
The self-proclaimed ringleader says cyclists hold motorists up "every day of the year" - his own words out him as a twat.
https://road.cc/content/news/229032-farmer-who-stopped-borders-sportive-...
I hope Farmer Gammon gets his lights punched out next time. I'd like to buy the 'beardy hooligan' a pint.
Yes you're right, it makes no difference that one was a pensioner.
I'm just a bit uncomfortable that as a group of cyclists we're all baying for pensioner to be prosecuted, when it appears he's done nothing wrong in the eyes of the law.
If there is evidence they've commited a crime, then I'll happily hold my hands up.
I was hit by a car on Monday. The driver turned right across my path without looking and I went over their bonnet. I miraculously escaped without serious injury, though my bike is a write off. The police aren’t pursuing any charges against the driver, so I guess they did nothing wrong. Thanks for clearing that up!
I got knocked off my motorbike a couple of weeks ago by a lady turning right out of a side road when I was filtering past a line of stationary traffic. Without going into details, she was only just starting to pull out and just hadn't seen me past the line of cars and came forward just enough to clip the side of the bike. A bystander heard the crash and called an ambulance, so police turned up too, but said they weren't going to pursue anything and I wouldn't have wanted them to, really - it wasn't intentional. Her insurance will cover the bike (not worth repairing) and damaged clothing/helmet. I had a bruised foot for a week, which is all fine now.
If I'd been on the road bike, as I usually am at that time of the morning, I would have come off a lot worse.
Should have submitted it to Motomadness on YouTube and shouted "oh what a day" as you lay on the floor.
As for the farmers, i hope next time they're slowing down traffic somebody stops them and drags them out their tractors and beats them with a stick.
Who cares if he’s a pensioner? What an utterly spurious argument.
What should they have been charged with?
Did anyone make a formal complaint of assault to the police? (I don't know, but bluride's comment above suggests no-one was pushed off their bike)
Is "blocking a highway" an offence? Is it still an offence if the highway is closed?
I certainly don't agree with the farmers attitude, but I don't see how you can prosecute people (one of them is a pensioner) for protesting.
Maybe that's the conclusion the procurator fiscal came to.
I can't answer the question about whether obstructing the road is a crime (although my instinct is that it is), but what difference does it make that one of them is a pensioner?
I actually have a smigeon of sympathy for objections to closed-road events of all kinds, I'm not really sure what the general principle is for deciding the rights-and-wrongs of it. It often annoys me when routes through local parks get closed to me because some commercial event is going on there.
But I'm absolutely sure they'd find a basis to charge the protestors if they found it politically desirable to do so. They aren't protesting against something the state regards as important, is all.
And of course blocking a highway is an offence, quick google turns up numerous cases of protestors about various things being arrested and prosecuted for it (e.g. a black lives matter protest blocking the M4 were charged with obstructing the highway).
(I do find it weird how British BLM protestors all seem to be white, incidentally)
I'm in danger of sounding like I'm supporting the farmers protest, which isn't the case (I've done the Tour of the Borders a few times myself.) I'm just trying to fight the procurator fiscals corner a bit....
If the Fiscal prosecuted them with blocking the highway would it stand up in court? Is it still a public highway while a closed road event is place on it on it?
Don't turn them into martyrs. For most generally law abiding members of the public, the authority figure of the local Police Officer turning up on your doorstep, asking you what happened, recommending that you stop being a twat, and making it clear that a repeat incident is not expected are all that is needed. Further, I would expect that the local farmers and Police have a working relationship what with rural crime being such a problem. There really is little benefit in creating divisions in those communities that can be avoided with a little stepping back from the edge by all sides.
'Course if they do it again, then life imprisonment without parole.
Sooooo, if i do a murder in my front room tonight and there is no repeat incident the following night then it's ok? I'll expect local plod to pop round and say 'boo' though...
“I don’t think this is a green light for violence towards cyclists, nor a sign that it’s okay to bully us. My take is that those responsible have learned their lesson – I bet they got a fright with the police at their doors and legal charges against them. Let’s think positive and believe attitudes are moving on a bit.”
This is exactly the attitude that has allowed racism to prosper in this country; excusing it with faint praise; they've learned their lesson, so nothing more needs to be done. If cyclists were a racial group, these people would have been prosecuted, but they're only cyclists, nobody important, not a group with any influence or political clout, so they can safely be ignored.
This won't deter others from doing the same thing, and indeed, it gives them licence to do so. These people should have been prosecuted "pour encourager les autres".
I wonder if these farmers would have done the same on a closed roads motor rally?
Duplicate post
"Should not be seen as " a green light isn't quite the same as "not" a green light. I also disagree: the decision not to proceed with the case, for whatever reason, does kind of show that you can wave big sticks at cyclists with pretty much complete impunity.
If Farmer McGiles allegedly hit someone surely it is up to the person on the alleged receiving end who decides whether or not to press charges, not the event organiser.
I think strictly, the way the law works, it's not up to a victim to 'press charges', that's entirely down to the police and the CPS. Certainly if there are independent witnesses they don't need the victim's testimony, as happens in some domestic violence cases. I think the basic philosophy is that assault is a crime against the state (or maybe against her Majesty, our Lizzie?), not the person assaulted.
I was there last year, in that first group; nobody got hit or hurt, a bunch of us got mildly inconvenienced by having to slow down for 30 seconds ... a couple of guys were protesting against the road closures at harvest time and their perceived lack of community consultation. I don’t agree - but fair enough worth a shrug at best.
lead car saw them going past ahead of the cyclists and didn’t intervene or mediate
I don’t normally post or respond to provocations online - but I get increasingly frustrated how this 'incident' was and is portrait, in the local press and on sites like this one - not least by the organisers who seem to use the context well for some additional free promotion or their extremely lucrative event!
At least nobody got hurt.
Contrast that with the bizarre decision in the Ade Azeez case.
I'd always been under the impression that the Scottish justice system led the way in the UK. Maybe I was wrong.
The question is, why? What is the reason? Public interest? Lack of evidence? CPS refused? I would love to know why, and I’m sure many others would.