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Surrey residents fume as closed roads trap them during RideLondon 100 (image Prudential RideLondon)Surrey resident launches campaign against closed-road cycle events
A Surrey resident has launched a campaign demanding that the county council not run closed-road events such as the RideLondon 100 sportive, which, he says, turns Surrey roads into a “cycle track”.
An online petition, Stop Surrey Being Turned Into a Cycle Track, was launched by Ian Huggins, 68, from Esher four days before the August 3 RideLondon-Surrey 100. Two weeks later it has garnered 826 signatures. In 2011 the population of Surrey was estimated to be 1,135,500.
Mr Higgins’ primary concern appears to be the effect on local businesses, including his own weekend clay pigeon shooting set-up. He also complained that "lycra louts" rode the route in advance of the event, making lots of noise.
He said: “Last year we were confined to barracks for two days and now I have been told I can’t leave my home unless I leave before 5am or after 7pm.
“No one has consulted me, no one has asked if I mind.”
In a story on GetSurrey.com several other residents voice their objections to the event. They accuse Surrey County Council and the RideLondon organisers of running the event without public consultation and without formal assessment of the impact on individuals and businesses.
Council and organisers were “riding roughshod” over those affected by turning the ride into an annual event, said one objector, Ian Mason, 59, from West Byfleet.
Former county councillor Ian Lake said: “I am incensed by the whole thing. The consultation has been poor, it is a vanity project.”
“People didn’t really mind last year when it was the Olympics and roads were only closed for a short time. This year, the barriers have been up for the last few days and caused a huge amount of inconvenience.”
A spokesman for Surrey County Council told GetSurrey: “We’ve been working with the organisers to ensure everything is done to minimise disruption, with the help of leaflets, drop-in events and the GoSurrey.info website, and to make sure vulnerable people are looked after and emergency services aren’t hampered.”
Event organiser Hugh Brasher of London Marathon Limited was unavailable for comment at the time of writing, but his office have has said he will respond as soon as he’s able.
Here’s the unedited full text of Mr Huggins’s petition:
Apart from the obvious dangers to cyclists,Surrey roads are not suitable.Surrey County Council have, without consultation,decided it would be a great idea to use Surrey as a race track. This in it's self is a thoughtless act but far more importantly residents and numerous businesses are being effected by road closures. This prevents residents of Surrey from leaving their own property and going about their normal business. The road closures were a necessary inconvenience during the Olympic Games but now it looks like Surrey County Council are to make this an annual event. This is all very well but residents of Surrey are pestered and annoyed by cyclists ( practising months in advance of the event ) who ride the route in very large numbers from very early in the morning shouting at each other (have you tried talking whilst riding your bike?) and riding in large groups sometimes three and four abreast or in strings of riders making it virtually impossible for the poor old motorist, many of whom are elderly, to overtake.Traffic violations are common and it is only a matter of time before there is a major accident with the possibility of the loss of life. It will of course be the motorists fault. Have Surrey County Council considered the number of heavy goods vehicles using the roads. The route chosen is all enclosing and no provision has been made for vehicular crossing points. So to facilitate a bike ride many Surrey residents are to be confined to their homes from 5 am until 9 pm.
Surrey versus cyclists
The popularity of the Surrey hills with cyclists has become a source of complaints for locals in the last couple of years. In July Councillor David Preedy told the BBC that local councils were exploring ways in which events could be regulated.
Councillor Preedy, who leads the Lib-Dem group on Mole Valley District Council, said the main problem was the “sheer number” of cyclists.
“Every weekend there are hundreds and hundreds of cyclists and then on top of that, big organised events,” he said. “The pressure on residents is just getting too much, they’re feeling imprisoned, they can’t get out.
“A lot of them, particularly in Box Hill, are older people who feel intimidated driving through large numbers of cyclists.”
In April, Mark Davis, chief executive of Vachery Triathlon organiser Brave Events, said that a meeting he called to discuss road closures for the event was hijacked by protesters.
He alleged he was threatened outside and said others there reported incidents to the police - despite the council agreeing to the road closures. He also said that the event would bring £10 million to the local economy over the next three years.
Mr Davis said: “How many events bring top sports people and that sort of money into the area? You can’t believe how selfish people are because they don’t like cycling. Nobody is going to be trapped. People aren’t going to be stranded on an island.”
Brave Events subsequently changed the event to have partially-closed rather than fully-closed roads.
Fortunately, not everyone in Surrey fails to recognise the money visiting cyclists spend in the local economy. In July, the National Trust painted three logos on the Box Hill climb, reading ‘I love cycling’; ‘I love amazing views’; and ‘I love tea and cakes’.
John has been writing about bikes and cycling for over 30 years since discovering that people were mug enough to pay him for it rather than expecting him to do an honest day's work.
He was heavily involved in the mountain bike boom of the late 1980s as a racer, team manager and race promoter, and that led to writing for Mountain Biking UK magazine shortly after its inception. He got the gig by phoning up the editor and telling him the magazine was rubbish and he could do better. Rather than telling him to get lost, MBUK editor Tym Manley called John’s bluff and the rest is history.
Since then he has worked on MTB Pro magazine and was editor of Maximum Mountain Bike and Australian Mountain Bike magazines, before switching to the web in 2000 to work for CyclingNews.com. Along with road.cc founder Tony Farrelly, John was on the launch team for BikeRadar.com and subsequently became editor in chief of Future Publishing’s group of cycling magazines and websites, including Cycling Plus, MBUK, What Mountain Bike and Procycling.
John has also written for Cyclist magazine, edited the BikeMagic website and was founding editor of TotalWomensCycling.com before handing over to someone far more representative of the site's main audience.
He joined road.cc in 2013. He lives in Cambridge where the lack of hills is more than made up for by the headwinds.
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108 comments
Well spotted
cat1commuter
Turned down on the grounds of noise not surprisingly
You Cannot be Serious! Stupid is as stupid does. This guy is self centered, egotistical; and looking to make a name for himself for all the wrong reasons. MUGGINS is playing a game of come and join my gang.. A trouble maker!
Mkay, comments can now be closed.
As I understand it (not sure where I found the info) Surrey has it for 5 years with the option on another couple. I'd guess after that it may well go in a different direction.
I'm just within the loop just south of the outgoing Walton-On-Thames leg, and incoming Esher/Portmouth road leg. What a lot of people seem to be missing is that even then it was possible to get out of that 'island' by driving down to a local A3 junction at Cobham and travelling via the A3 to somewhere outside the loop.
The organiser of the petition appears, from a brief search, to live on the Portsmouth road - the route runs directly past. If he's that desperate to drive anywhere all he has to do is park in Hawkshill Way and walk the hundred yards or few along portsmouth road - an inconvenience, but not impossible.
And at 68 I rather suspect he's retired or semi-retired, so he *does* have the rest of the week to busy himself elsewhere. Dunno why he seems to think organising this stuff should be down to some kind of referendum...
But judging by his petition, he *does* appear to be a bit of a whiny prat.
gazpacho you need to get out more not all oldy's are like Mr Huggins i am 69 and ride regularly and would have been doing the Silverstone 24 hour challenge in sept if the plug had not been puled stop being ageist dose not help the cause
Yes. Signatures and support.
Not for the first time I rather sadly find myself admiring the French and wishing we Brits were a bit more like them. Not only do they have excellent roads but their attitude towards cycling, cyclists and races is to be envied. How sad that a whining OAP in England can't embrace what our neighbours just a few miles over the Channel practically live for. He should be ashamed. Oh, and learn how to use English grammar properly.
If the good people of Surrey cannot see the major benefits of such events being hosted in their area and give just one day in the year I am sorry for them.
I went out to watch with many of the the local residents in my area - Horsley - and all I spoke to were enthusiastic.
Despite being inside the loop as it were it was still possible to get away if you had to.
Well done the organisers and I've got my name in the hat for next year
Can we have a petition to stop stupid petitions from self centred, selfish individuals
"noisy cyclists"? is that a joke, im pretty sure if you give me a decibel meter to take a sound measurement the flow of motorised trafic engines would far outway any noise from cyclists...
even if they were shouting to eachother and their volume was equal too or high than cars and lorries, surely the amount of time they cause noise is far lass than the amount of time that noise is heard from other traffic?!
Dear All
Thanks for letting put my twopennyworth in though I feel some of you may not like it!
I am a Surrey resident who has signed the petition you are up in arms about. Let me explain why.
1. On the day of the event the carers for my 86 year old mother in law were denied access by the stewards. I appreciate this is not the fault of individual cyclists but that of the organisers, but it does need to be pointed out.
2. Like most Surrey residents I was extremely pleased about the route being used for the Olympics as a one off and for a rehearsal. At no point were residents consulted about an annual event.
3. Some towns and villages ARE completely isolated by the road closures e.g. Byfleet and Westcott.
4. Please look at the attached link as this is especially relevant on the A25 from Clandon to Dorking.
https://www.gov.uk/rules-for-cyclists-59-to-82/overview-59-to-71
5. There is plenty of room on the roads if we ALL abide by the simple rules that are in place.
I hope no one is offended by my observations,
Kind regards
freespirit1
Hang on, nobody is forcing them to shut down their business. THEY choose to do so because they believe that without cars on the road, people don't go out. I saw many coffee shops closed in Surrey, and I was quite shocked b/c the area was packed with people cheering the race on. Those people would have spent a decent amount of money buying food in those coffee shops. If the Ian Huggins of Surrey think that the world ends with the car, then that's not Surrey Council's fault, nor the organizers.
And we are talking about ONE day, for chrissakes! A day and road clossures that were announced months and months in advance. If he chooses to ignore what happens around him, tough shit!
Unfortunately for us, this twat reached 1000 + signatures, which means he will no present this bullshit to SCC.
I fucking hate this people!
The road closures and their duration were only announced with 2 to 3 weeks to go to the event. We were not given months and months notice of the that. The event yes, the nitty gritty no.
The road closures were flagged months in advance in Wimbledon and details sent out by post and available on the internet. Perhaps you missed it in the post ?
It may have escaped your notice but Wimbledon comes under the Greater London Authority, therefore TFL. I am talking about Surrey, where we did indeed have to wait to find out the exact times of the road closures until 2 to 3 weeks before the event.
my notification came from the race organiser. If they did not notify universally along the route then yes that is a failing to fix for next year but it was virtually impossible to not be aware of the event, a bit like the London marathon.
I was aware of the event in February and have an e-mail string to councillors and others on SCC asking about the road closures.
It seemed reasonable as they ok'd the idea in the first place!
They all answered that the organisers would let them know and then they would let their electorates know.
Hence it was all confirmed at the end of June beginning of July, even then I found out from a local newspaper site.
I live in Westcott and it's lovely during these events, the kids can ride and walk in the streets without you having to be a couple of feet away at all times and the spirit on the green is great. It was also possible to drive somewhere on the Sunday of Ride London by leaving a car on Logmore Lane the night before.
What is relevant in that link for the A25? The bit about two abreast?
I get where Northstar is coming from. I am also an advanced driver. I like the idea of assisting traffic flow even as a driver but you do need to be careful. I see drivers all the time doing things that they think are useful like stopping to let cars out from side roads. Nice idea until you get rear ended and someone accuses you of "slam on" accident.
Long ago I was hit by a car that was "flashed through" a gap by another motorist that hadn't seen me. They were just being kind and thoughtful and the other motorist was just doing what most of us would also do. Legally it was the fault of the motorist that hit me for not checking themselves that it was clear but a big contribution was made by the other motorist deciding to "help" the traffic and making up their own rules.
As an aside the motorist that flashed just drove off. The motorist that hit me claimed it wasn't her fault as she had been flashed through. Her insurance company tried to blame me and claimed my bike was unroadworthy because it was made up of different parts and wasn't a specific make and model. Luckily my BCF licence gave me insurance and they explained that it was roadworth as had been inspected for a race the previous day.
So be careful giving hand signals or otherwise beckoning people through or giving way when you have right of way. You can't make up your own rules. And if you change the assumptions of the Highway Code whilst trying to be helpful you could easily end up being blamed or even hurt when someone misinterprets your gestures.
Keep it simple. Only use hand signals in the highway code. Keep your lane, occupy your space. It may annoy some motorists that you don't just get out of their way but the principle is clear. You have a right to be where you are. It is safer when you are visible and drivers need to take account of you. The chances that drivers will see you and then just run over you anyway are miniscule (however much they moan) The chances that by trying to be helpful and keeping out of their way or making room for them to squeeze past will result in them misjudging are much higher.
You can be polite and courteous without overdoing it.
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