Opponents of the Etape Caledonia cycling event have condemned the weekend actions of saboteurs but have themselves pledged to renew efforts to stop the event.
As event organisers IMG Challenger World mark five successful years, pressure group ACRE (Anti-Closed Road Events) is to launch a bid to have the cycle trial declared illegal.
It believes the race is damaging to Highland Perthshire despite estimates it is worth more than £1 million annually to the local economy and contravenes the legislation that enables it to take place on closed roads.
And its membership are now seeking the support of Tayside Police and the Scottish Government for a bid to see the Etape brought to a close when it comes to the end of the initial run agreed with Perth and Kinross Council.
Nonetheless, IMG has pledged to be back stronger than ever in 2012, stressing its commitment to Highland Perthshire and the thousands of participants and spectators involved.
ACRE has led high-profile opposition to the Etape since it began in 2007, criticising the local authority for allowing the event to take place on closed roads.
However, the decision was taken prior to last year’s event to drop its protests in light of sabotage attempts in 2009.
While continuing to insist a closed-road event is inappropriate for Highland Perthshire and a curse to local businesses, it also remained silent in the run-up to this year’s event.’Illegal’ACRE spokesman Peter Hounam believes now is the time for the group to break its silence. The group has long stressed it is not opposed to cycling and has backed an open-road time trial alternative that it is convinced would prove just as popular.
However, members are not willing to allow the UK’s only closed-road mass-participation cycle event to continue without a fight.
“We believe that it is time to launch a serious bid to have this race stopped as we are firmly of the view that it is illegal,” Mr Hounam said. “ACRE is now planning to liaise with Tayside Police to ask them to take legal action against the organisers of the Etape.
“We have also made efforts to get the Scottish Government involved and believe there are concerns being raised there, too.
“This race as it is now, with its 5000 riders, is not what the legislation they are running the Etape under was designed for.
“When the organisers came along to sell this thing to the community it was of vital importance to them that it be thought of as a trial and not a race. I don’t think there can be any doubt that it is a race.”
While condemning the actions of saboteurs, Mr Hounam said the weekend’s drama indicated that there remains a strength of feeling locally.’Gobsmacked’He believes the closure of roads interferes with the area’s fragile seasonal economy and deprives locals of freedom of movement.
“People are just gobsmacked that in supporting the event Perth and Kinross Council has continually ignored the views of people in this area,” he said. “I have a tourism business here in Highland Perthshire and on Sunday we did no more business than we would do on a normal weekday.
“No matter what claims are made about the economic benefits of this event, my experience is that most businesses do no more business than usual at best…
“There are signs up long before the event informing people that the roads will be closed and that just seems to mean that people don’t come here this weekend. And it’s not just the Saturday and Sunday as this seems to affect businesses in the days before and after the event, too.
“These may be old arguments but that does not affect the truth of them.”
While ACRE’s bid will continue, Mr Hounam also believes the event may itself collapse.
“With 5000 participants already, I don’t believe the event can reasonably get any bigger and I just don’t think there will be enough money in it for the organisers,” he claims.