Cycle event Velothon Wales looks set to return to Caerphilly after the controversial race was first held in June this year.
The route for the race, being held on May 22 next year, has not been finalised, but organisers are working with Caerphilly County Borough Council to allow a similar route to pass through the borough.
Up to 18,000 riders are expected to take part in the 140km race, but a shorter route has been dropped this time round.
The race caused controversy this year, with residents angry at road closures and businesses claiming they were negatively affected by the event.
Caerphilly MP Wayne David said he had hundreds of complaints about June’s race and said the race should not come to Caerphilly again.
But council leader, Cllr Keith Reynolds, said he had sought reassurances that lessons would be learnt from last year.
He said: “We will consult affected businesses and communities as we did last year once we receive detailed road closure proposals from the organisers.
“We look forward to working with the team to build on the success of Velothon 2015 and recognise that events like this help put our area on the map, but we want to ensure that we maximise the benefits whilst minimising disruption to local people.”
Let’s hope it is better organised this year!
Guess your another Cllr who’s not for it, I did remember seeing somewhere that you were all for People in your borough exercising, The benefits people will get to their health from the training they put in for this event will be enormous, perhaps that is what you should be promoting instead of your ignored remarks regarding organistion especially now that the councils have another 6 months plus do decide what they can do to help during the road closures, I am so amazed how slow the council’s are in picking up events like these and even running for example which are two of the biggest growing sports in the UK but no, the Council would rather pay their bosses thousands instead, Can’t wait for the next round of local elections as I believe quite a few changes are going to be made..
Please don’t confuse the the Town Council, which I am elected to, with the Borough Council which hosts this event. So far as the chief executive and pay goes my views are very clear and have appeared in The Observer many times; that is, the senior officers are paid far too much.
So far as this event goes I have had many complaints from residents in my ward about the duration of road closures which need to be addressed. Better organisation may well resolve this problem.
So Does that mean you will personally let the residents in your ward who do not have on-line access know about the dates etc of these planned road closures?
No it does not.
Lets be honest, last year was a complete nightmare for thousands of people – all at the request of Velothon, which is a profit making company. They PAID for OUR roads to be closed. Compensation (if there’s any) will only be paid to companies, not individuals. Public roads should remain PUBLIC !!!
Great news! Let’s hope forewarned is forearmed for the 2016 event and people arrange to have their shopping delivered on the Saturday and the whole thing doesn’t come as so much of a shock this time.
With maybe 18000 riders it’s going to a monster. Get polishing those cow-bells.
It’s a shame that businesses in Caerphilly town will not benefit at all from this event, considering the inconvenience they will once again face.
Events such as the Tour of Britain brought in spectators that benefitted local shops etc. But nobody will be interested in watching 18,000 overweight middle aged men huffing & puffing their way up Caerphilly mountain.
Who says they can’t? The cafe on top of caerphilly mountain had its best day profits since it opened during that day, If business are not willing to embrace the event then what do you expect..
No doubt the usual idiots on here will be posting after the event that they knew nothing about any of the planned road closures, You and Businesses have months to decide what your gonna do for the few hours the roads will be closed.
One buisiness (burger bar on mountains n) had their best ever sales on the day of the Velothon you claim (which is nonsense). But if it was true – it’s only one buisiness.
As for local buisiness’s embracing it. The cyclists will not be stopping to sit in a cafe or decide to hav a walk around any of the shops just before tackling Caerphilly mtn. And as said – very few will be coming into Caerphilly to spectate … because the roads will be all closed!
Its nothing my but an inconvenience for Caerphilly residents. For ones who do not cycle and for those that do. It’s not as if it’s free to ride the Velothon.
Yes, someone is making a packet from this but it is not local people.
Really Not suprised because people like yourself’s cannot be bothered to get off your backsides, how much exercise do you get Cllr Williams? I remember seeing a few posts of yours a few years back when you were associated with UKIP, On another note last year I managed to get through the traffic last ear because I planned my journey ahead, I had dinner in Caerphilly which I must say the pub we were in totally embraced the event had a tent and bouncey castle for the children and were flat out serving food,, This went well for a few places because they PLANNED ahead….
There are three things I find common to all internet trolls,
1) They never have a coherent argument of their own, probably due to lack of education.
2) They always look for confrontation by means of infantile insults.
3) They always hide behind a few letters of the alphabet, rather than using their name.
How on earth are you a Councillor, 1:First my user name is my Initials, 2: Sadly for you My credentials and Education FAR FAR out way yours, As for insults that was not my intention but Obviously that’s how you as a person view it, lets be honest here you are UKIP supporter and we all know about their fascist/racist backround… Now if you don’t mind Cllr shouldn’t you actually be doing something positive for the community you represent rather than commenting on my posts?