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2019 Road Worlds ‘closed Harrogate town centre for a month’ says council report

Conclusions urge closer involvement of local residents and businesses ahead of hosting large events in the future

The 2019 UCI Road World Championships caused the centre of Harrogate, the North Yorkshire town which hosted the finish of the races, to be closed for a month according to a draft report of the event that will be considered by the local council’s overview and scrutiny commission next week.

The draft report has been published on Harrogate Borough Council’s website ahead of the meeting and makes a number of recommendations including ensuring greater involvement of local businesses and residents prior to the North Yorkshire  hosting large events in the future.

Harrogate itself, which is a major destination for tourism, trade shows and conferences, was the central hub for the championships, and besides providing the finish location to the racing, which took place over nine days, it also hosted media and broadcast centres, the event HQ and the fanzone, which was located close to the finish on The Stray.

The draft report said that “residents, businesses and other organisations in Harrogate were therefore more affected by the event than those in other areas of the district and wider Yorkshire area.”

In a foreword to the draft report, Councillor Nick Brown, chair of Harrogate Borough Council’s UCI Task and Finish Group, said: “An important conclusion reached was that there was a common perception that the event effectively closed down the centre of Harrogate not just for the nine days of the UCI but for nearly a month including set up and dismantling and this was considered unacceptable to many residents and businesses in the town.

“Looking to the future, there is a place for exciting, perhaps shorter, events that portray Harrogate and North Yorkshire in a good light, nationally and throughout the world,” he continued.

“The views of the Task and Finish Group, which have been cross-party and unanimous in its recommendations, have concluded that in future greater priority should be given to serving the needs of those who live, work and create wealth and employment in this great town and district,” the councillor added.

> World Championships in Harrogate “catalyst for ill feeling” says organiser hoping to revive Tour de Yorkshire

A separate study carried out by Ernst & Young found that the event boosted the local economy to the tune of £17.8 million and attracted a worldwide TV audience of 329 million people, but noted that some local businesses had seen a reduction in trade while the championships were going on.

The UCI Task and Finish Group’s own draft report said that it too had “heard evidence that some local businesses experienced significant disruption, over a number of weeks that affected trade, deliveries and staff, but this was not the focus of the EY study.

“It would be beneficial when commissioning similar evaluation studies to try to ensure the output included insights that were beneficial to as many local organisations as possible, with particular consideration given to the scope for the work,” it added.

The draft report was in part based on responses to a survey conducted in May and June 2021, with 610 residents and 79 organisations participating, as well as a day-long evidence session.

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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23 comments

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Secret_squirrel | 2 years ago
3 likes

"An important conclusion reached was that there was a common perception"

So we are making decisions on perceptions rather than trying to correct them?

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tigersnapper | 2 years ago
6 likes

Purely anecdotal, but I travelled up to Yorkshire to take part in the sportive.  Didn't feel good on the day so just visited Harrogate instead (on a rainy Sunday) with my wife and the friend we were staying with.  The town centre was packed, although not all the shops were open - fair enough on a Sunday.  We added some money to the £17.8m in Betty's tearooms and the wife spent some money in a clothes shop!  I suspect the local businesses wouldn't normally have done that well on rainy Sunday out of the holiday season.  Unfortunately some people will always look at the negatives and miss the positives - Harrogate is a lovely town and having seen it briefly we will visit in the future as tourists.

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Simon_MacMichael replied to tigersnapper | 2 years ago
4 likes

tigersnapper wrote:

I suspect the local businesses wouldn't normally have done that well on rainy Sunday out of the holiday season.  Unfortunately some people will always look at the negatives and miss the positives - Harrogate is a lovely town and having seen it briefly we will visit in the future as tourists.

The owners of the pub where I, a couple of friends and a few dozen visitors from Belgium and the Netherlands took shelter certainly wouldn't have complained, they were doing a roaring trade.

And yes, that was my first visit there (I was also at the women's race on the Saturday) but definitely won't be my last.

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HarrogateSpa | 2 years ago
7 likes

Councillor Nick Brown was against hosting the World Champs, doesn't want pedestrianisation, wants low parking charges, and believes motorists are knocked or made to feel unwelcome.

He's all about cars, cars, cars, and whatever he wrote in this report should be read in that context.

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HarrogateSpa replied to HarrogateSpa | 2 years ago
2 likes
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pockstone replied to HarrogateSpa | 2 years ago
3 likes

Ahh, the 'North Yorkshire winter, which will soon be upon us' .

He's in Harrogate, not Harbin or Hammerfest for heaven's sake.

 

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muhasib replied to HarrogateSpa | 2 years ago
7 likes

I do like the bit where he said:

I often find myself a lone voice and in a minority of one on the council, as indeed I do on this issue.

So there is hope yet...

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chrisonabike replied to muhasib | 2 years ago
1 like

Wouldn't be so sure.  He's possibly just the Donald Trump in a collection of Reese Moggs.  Been a long time since I passed by there but my flabber would be utterly ghasted if that council were a hotbed of "let's tame the car" and "vision zero" types.

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Kendalred replied to HarrogateSpa | 2 years ago
0 likes

is that the same NYCC nob who wanted to build a Harrogate bypass through ancient woodland? 

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HarrogateSpa replied to Kendalred | 2 years ago
5 likes

That was Don Mackenzie, who was the Cllr in charge of transport. Luckily the idea was roundly rejected in the consultation.

Some of the land that would have been affected is now a community-owned woodland. Part of the reason for setting it up is to make it harder for the road plan to be resurrected.

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Flintshire Boy replied to Kendalred | 2 years ago
0 likes

.

Build it on The Stray, I say.

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'sony a bit a grass, FGS!!!

.

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Simon_MacMichael replied to HarrogateSpa | 2 years ago
6 likes

HarrogateSpa wrote:

Councillor Nick Brown was against hosting the World Champs, doesn't want pedestrianisation, wants low parking charges, and believes motorists are knocked or made to feel unwelcome.

He's all about cars, cars, cars, and whatever he wrote in this report should be read in that context.

Thanks for that, always good to get a local angle from people who are aware of specific nuances/personalities etc.

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pockstone | 2 years ago
5 likes

My personal anecdata: a gear cable from Halfords, a couple of rounds of drinks, a screwdriver from a town centre hardware store, (which didn't seem to be affected at all by road closures or crowds) and a particularly good Chinese takeaway on Harlow hill. (50% of which I wouldn't have needed had my derailleur cable not snapped at the bottom of Norwood edge!) Multiply this (50%) by the half dozen people I set off to Harrogate with, none of whom would have been spending money in Harrogate town centre on a Saturday afternoon normally, just a small contribution to the £17.8m. And that £17.8m would probably have been much higher had it not poured down on the Sunday.

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mdavidford | 2 years ago
1 like

Quote:

the event effectively closed down the centre of Harrogate not just for the nine days of the UCI

Is that like the Nine Days Queen - a troublesome interlude that enjoyed brief popularity before being destroyed by powerful vested interests...?

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mpdouglas | 2 years ago
10 likes

The weird thing about all of this is that I went there for the weekend, in the middle of it all. And I was able to drive in to Harrogate, get parked, stay in a local hotel, eat out in restaurants, drink in bars and do a bit of shopping. Most places were packed out. The only inconvenience was a slightly contorted route in from the motorway to allow for some of the road closures. I wouldn't have done any of that, had the event not been hosted there. Must have been a real tragedy for the town to only get a £17.8m uplift in economic activity and global media coverage!

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BigSigh | 2 years ago
3 likes

That's a shame. Send it my way instead. 2023? Sorted!

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muhasib | 2 years ago
3 likes

On a more optimistic note they accept that:

'It was positive that the study appeared to show the event inspired people to do more sport and active recreation generally and there were some parallel with comments received as part of the Group’s public consultation'

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Grahamd | 2 years ago
7 likes

They could have focused on the £17.8 million boost to the economy instead. 

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Argos74 | 2 years ago
4 likes

This sounds absolutely ghastly, and can only conclude that future events of this scale, scope and magnitude be sent to some grotty little market town that doesn't have any trade anyway so wouldn't be affected. Say, Manchester.

Though I suppose we could let them keep children's balance bike racing.

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Rendel Harris | 2 years ago
11 likes

Interesting language: "An important conclusion reached was that there was a common perception that the event effectively closed down the centre of Harrogate"

So basically people thought it did sort of? I don't know the ins and outs of what went on, having not been able to make it up there, to my regret, but that's equivocal to say the least.

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ShutTheFrontDawes replied to Rendel Harris | 2 years ago
8 likes

It basically means that they couldn't be bothered to actually find out what the impact was (weren't they there?), so instead they asked a few people on the street and wrote down what they said.

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ubercurmudgeon replied to Rendel Harris | 2 years ago
5 likes

Yeah, but the people who thought that are presumably the honest, hardworking, proper Englishmen/Yorkshiremen, so the accuracy of their perceptions is not the point. Liberal elite snowflakes can prove anything with "facts" and "data", but they don't vote Tory and don't have posh cars (or, shock-horror, any car at all!) so they don't count. Haven't people heard that we've had enough of experts?

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exilegareth replied to Rendel Harris | 1 year ago
0 likes

It's a scrutiny report written by a task and finish group trying to justify recommendations for future events. It's hardly earth shattering stuff and has the oft seen problem in scrutiny reports of members of the council gettin g confused about whether they're there to assess evidence or provide it from their own stock of anecdotes.

However, on some stuff, probably guided by their officer, they got a lot right, especially around economic evaluation.

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