Thumbs up for bike route despite fears
Per th and Kinro s s is preparing to host thousands of the world’s top cyclists in August as part of the biggest cycling event in history.
The Gran Fondo Road Race is part of the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) World Cycling Championships taking place in Glasgow and across Scotland this August.
Councillors voted to approve the route despite concerns it could cause major disruption on a busy holiday weekend.
Perth and Kinross Council’s environment, infrastructure and economic development committee was recommended to approve hosting the road race event on Friday, August 4.
The Gran Fondo Road Race will start and finish on Perth’s North Inch as part of a route going through central and Highland Perthshire.
At the recent meeting, Depute Provost Andrew Parrott called on organisers “to work hard to mitigate and minimise” disruption to local residents and businesses.
This followed a deputation from Provost Xander McDade, who raised concerns about major road closures around Pitlochry and Aberfeldy and access to the doctors’ surgery in Aberfeldy.
The independent Highland Perthshire councillor said: “It’s a working day. People need to get to work and to the doctor.”
Bailie Claire McLaren, who represents Strathtay ward, said locals were not just worried about the route combined with planned roadworks for the Cross Tay Link Road but also a contingency plan if there was an accident on the A9 and traffic needs to be diverted.
She said: “There is a strong potential that could occur on such a busy weekend of tourism traffic outwith a large event coming to our area.”
Organiser Malcolm Smith said: “We will be looking at what options are available to us.”
PKC’s head of environmental and consumer services, Mark Butterworth, added: “There will be a safety advisory group that will involve the police, the fire service, council and partners so if there are any issues around safety they just wouldn’t let the race go ahead. That will certainly be an area they need to look at.”
Concern was also raised about a clash with Perth Show, which takes place that weekend.
PKC’s executive director of communities, Barbara Renton, said: “We are working really closely with Perth Show. The commitment there is to make sure that the animals, the businesses, the stallholders and the people who want to visit Perth Show get there as easily and as well as possible.
“There will be staged closures
and there will be times when the traffic will be able to move through.
“That’s the point of Perth Show being part of that engagement process to make sure we can work this through as easily as we can for what will be a major world-class event.”
Moving to approve the route, the environment, infrastructure and economic development committee convener Cllr Parrott said it would “provide a unique opportunity to be part of a historic cycling event”.
Depute Provost Parrott added: “This event will place Perth and Kinross on the world stage and whilst there will, of course, be disruption on the day of the event which the organisers must work hard to mitigate and minimise I have no doubt that the global attraction of the event and its sheer scale will have significant economic and social benefits for the residents and businesses of Perth and Kinross for a long time after the necessary road closures and detours have gone.”
It was seconded by Highland ward SNP member Mike Williamson.
Independent councillor Colin Stewart tabled an amendment to defer approval of the proposed route to a later meeting.
The Strathmore councillor said this would allow “officers to engage with the organisers to establish an alternative less disruptive route/ date within the August 3-13 window and can pro-actively consult with affected residents businesses and communities.”
It was seconded by Strathmore Conservative councillor Hugh Anderson, with both raising concerns about a lengthy road closure in Perth’s Bridgend area.
Councillors approved the route by 13 votes to two.
After the meeting Cllr Stewart said: “It’s frankly astonishing that other councillors didn’t support a delay to sort out the numerous problems we got told about, from the complete absence of public consultation to the very biased economic assessment, from the need to close Bridgend for eight hours to the request that people don’t make doctor, dentist or consultant appointments on that day. Frankly, I don’t think councillors or officers are prepared for the storm of protest that’s coming their way when the public find out about this.”
On November 30, PKC’s finance and resources committee committed £ 280,000 to hosting the event.