AIBU to think this event should never have happened.

[DaisiesAreOurSilver]

www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/mare-newborn-foal-die-because-15637103

Big cycle race of 100 miles in our area yesterday. Road closures from 5.30 am till 12.30 pm. Some streets were totally cut off for the whole time.

Residents were just told they should have parked outside the area the night before. For some that would mean a walk of a mile, given how many roads were closed. One family escorted through because they had a flight to catch but had to wait 25 minutes for an escort.

Carers were unable to visit the housebound clients, meals on wheels couldn't get through and the stewards didn't give a stuff. For some people it wasn't a question of finding a way around there were areas that were totally cut off for the duration.

But worst of all the stewards wouldn't let a emergency vet through and a mare and her foal died. The foal would have been worth a lot of money as was the mare. I hope the owner sues for every penny she can.

Residents are very angry and cannot understand why permission was granted for this to happen. If they try it again vigilantes have said they'll force the roads open if they try to close them. Feelings running very high.

It was allowed to go ahead because it raised the profile of the area and brought in a lot of tourism/cash, I presume. A lot of risk assessments, planning and permissions would have come before it.

An area with Stratford-on-Avon in it doesn't need its profile raised nor more tourists. I have severe doubts about the levels of risk assessment and/or planning.

Aridane what rubbish

The Welsh velothon suffered similar issues with road closures in rural areas (which was pretty much most of the route) blocking people off for half a day. We also had a marathon in Newport last week that closed a main route for 18 hours. Thankfully the velothon is cancelled this year and I couldn't be happier.

Rustybear, the changes to VED being ring-fenced for road funding is a fairly weak political sop designed to placate the rapid anti-cycling types clearly evident through this thread. The funding goes to Highways England who look after major trunk roads and motorways. All the rest of the A, B, and other roads are looked after through Council Tax funding, bar the odd central government input for major infrastructure projects or pothole repairs. They were government funded before, and still are now. George Osborne just thought it would sound nice to say 'Road tax' pays for roads, when there was no actual change in reality. If you want to direct your anger at those who don't pay for the roads, then why not start ranting about pensioners, students, and those on low incomes who get a Council Tax reduction rather than people riding bikes.

As others have pointed out as well, VED is based on emissions produced mainly. Electric cars with zero emissions pay nothing, higher producing cars and vehicles pay more. Bikes produce none, so therefore would not be eligible anyway. There is also the fact that the vast majority of these people in the event are likely to have cars anyway, so by your logic will have already paid their 'Road Tax'. As it happens, I've not driven my car today, so where do I apply for my VED refund?

I'm not defending the actions of the organisers and stewards concerned, and do have issues with this type of event and how they're run and organised, but let's not use this as an excuse to moan about 'selfish arrogant' cyclists like they're some kind of foreign homogenous group, based on ridiculous prejudice and ill-informed opinions of the 'facts'.

It sounds like a poorly chosen route and clearly lessons need to be learned. Unless things like this happen every year at The Tour de France etc then there must be a way a race can be better organised.

But I think some of the viciousness being shown towards cyclists is completely unnecessary.

We’ve had a similar issue a few weeks ago for a cycle race.
The main issue was that people were told about road closures, date and times but it was simply impossible to find out WHICH ROADS would actually be closed

It seems to be more of a general thing now. Here is X event, we need to close rods. Let’s do that any thought or check on what the consequences will be

A local policeman friend not in the OP's area but we have a similar cycle race couldn't get through when he had the blue light on! His own department stopped him going to an emergency, he had to go the long way around!!!

Can’t be arsed to name change. I live in a town in Surrey, on the Hampshire border. I live in the town centre.
Last year, very frequently (at least one weekend a month), the town centre would be shut road-wise due to events taking place. It got tiresome. What got even more tiresome was when we needed to get out of the car park we had parked in (outside the house), to drive like the clappers to DP’s parents as DP’s parent who was terminally ill, being cared for at the end of their life at home, and at the time had taken a turn for the worst.

We couldn’t get out of the car park. We were utterly fucked. Explained the situation to the stewards who patronisingly told us we had known in advance and if we wanted to “go on a family visit” we should have planned better.

Fuck them, and fuck the road closures. We weren’t the only ones in this situation, and the frequent inaccessibility was a massive issue to the majority of the local residents who were older and in need of carers and in some cases, emergency care.

DP couldn’t get to his parent and they died two days later. He was with his parent when they died but lost out on an entire day that could have been spent with family.

Fucking selfish cunts

Wobbling lycra clad bastards

ruby thats fucking disgraceful, what legal powers do these 'stewards' have to hold people and their vehicles and prevent egress?!

Events like this should be put to local referendum before they’re okayed. Let the people impacted decide.

Referendum results only apply if they go how smug middle class people want them to, so you couldn't affect a cycling event with one.

Titiana
No idea but our “story” wasn’t a one off. Lots of older people needing care who couldn’t be accessed by their carers, someone who’s child had a reaction (allergy) said the ambulance dispatched had trouble getting through (but they did, I think it was a case of putting their foot down and telling the stewards to fuck off).

We complained to the local borough council and the sponsors and got a pithy reply back. It’s been much better this year, no closures and we haven’t been disrupted. I know a hell of a lot of residents complained to the council directly and also to the local MP during one of his open hours/surgeries.

It's sad that our country is so bound to it's cars that people feel stranded when a road is closed to cars for a day. The majority of these people could have walked or cycled if they wanted to get somewhere local, and walked to a station or their car further away if they were travelling further. Yes better provision should have been made for quick emergency vehicle access, and arrangements should be made for truly essential trips such as for carers for the housebound, there are reasonable complaints there, and I hope that future events will be better planned.

We have a major race passing our area and it's one of my favourite days. Every other day the road is filled with polluting traffic and drivers going too fast. We live in central London and there are so many other less antisocial transport options than driving. Yet still people moan about the road being closed (able bodied people wanting to make short local journeys). The UK is weirdly attached to it's cars.

Oh give over. Why should people have to walk to go about their normal everyday business. I need to drive to look after my horse twice a day. Too far for me to walk. If the road was closed for someone’s hobby what would you suggest I do?

@Flatwhite101 - your own anger seems to be misdirected at me, all I did was post a link about VED, I haven't made any judgements, or indeed any comments at all, about cyclists not paying for roads. Though quite why you should include pensioners among those who 'don't pay for roads' escapes me, I'm a pensioner and I pay both VED and the full rate of council tax.

Antigonads there's a road closure near me for a triathlon. Road tends to be closed from 7am to 2pm so I go and see my horse before and after. I cycle anyway so apart from the odd joke about whether I'm a competitor or not the stewards aren't bothered.

I was trapped in for the second week running this weekend. Tour de Yorkshire last week and Leeds half marathon yesterday. I live inside the circular route and most roads were closed from 4am to 3pm.
I don’t mind a one off but we are likely to have at least 4 more events over the course of the next few months. All of them use the main road into the city which we live just off. I mean there are other roads in Leeds why always choose this particular one?!
I’m also 8 months pregnant and that main road is our route to the hospital....

Op I live in your area and Sunday was Hellish trying to get around

The tour de Yorkshire passed through my village and the road was closed for 20minutes! Why 7hours of closures?

Professional races such as the Tour have fewer participants and they tend to be fairly bunched together. They depend on a rolling road closure as the race goes through. Amateur mass participation events have a greater number of competitors and they are more spread out in abilities so roads tend to be closed for longer.

We were just outside the route, so no trapped but couldn't get to church (luckily not on a rota) as the detour would have been huge and involved crossing the route outside church with two children, which didn't seem sensible (presuming we could get parked nearby of course).

We enjoyed watching it and clapped the participants, but people on the route hadn't been leafleted (we know someone living right on the closed road) and despite signs being up for a couple of weeks, one old gentleman was trapped in his cul-de-sac and didn't know it was happening. He was unlikely to have the internet and potentially wasn't out and about in his car every day to see the signs.

Today, we've still got yellow signs and cones all over the place which is pretty disappointing and unsightly.

I didn't really think of the Tour de Yorkshire, but you're right, pro cyclists are going to be fast and all of a roughly similar speed, so a rolling roadblock isn't going to cause too much disruption. We were only closed in the morning but I have no idea when the road re-opened. We watched cyclists pass for 2 hours and we missed the fastest ones as it was in full swing when we arrived.

I think it does need better advertising, not just online, leafleting of the route including cul-de-sacs and estates cut off. Obviously a circular route makes it very difficult as you have an inner group who are totally stuck.

I also think there should be a faster speed cut off. The ones we saw right at the back, I really hope they stopped at 42 miles, they really would have taken all day to get back to Birmingham. Maybe the route needs to not be circular and to have a faster limit so roads are re-opened quicker.

We have a major race passing our area and it's one of my favourite days. Every other day the road is filled with polluting traffic and drivers going too fast. We live in central London and there are so many other less antisocial transport options than driving. Yet still people moan about the road being closed (able bodied people wanting to make short local journeys). The UK is weirdly attached to it's cars. in the real world, outside of your smug London centric bubble, people don’t have the option of the tube, and need to drive places

They tried to do similar to us Southern Vectis or some such name. They were closing roads where there was absolutely no alternative route in or out of the village. I suspect the county council received a payment of some sort.
Luckily they failed to understand the strength of feelings locally about lack of consultation and consideration for the locals. We simply closed the roads ourselves and stopped them being used as a race course.No fuss, no great protests but simply local people going about their business. Tractors, horse boxes, land rovers and trailers, builders vans etc. No race took place and no plans to try again this year.
We live in a national park so expect some intrusion from tourists including cyclists enjoying the Downs and bringing money into the region. That’s a good thing. We let them use our loos, give water or sometimes a cup of tea and let them use the phone.
It’s not all cyclists we hate. It’s those that are rude enough to think they have more rights than people that live here. Those riding in groups of thirty four abreast. Those shouting at 7 am on a Sunday morning or sticking laminated arrows on our fences.

Wow! Yes in London there won't be an issue.