Row continues over cancellation of cycling’s Tour o’ the Borders next year

Peebles cycling events company Hillside Outside this week voiced fears that September’s tour, the tenth, might be the last, prompting Scottish Borders Council chiefs to urge them to consider following an alternative route to those previously used to safeguard the future of the race and minimise disruption to individuals and businesses inconvenienced by the road closures involved.

The council has now issued a further response laying the blame for 2024’s cry-off with Hillside Outside.

“The decision not to run the Tour o’ the Borders event in 2024 was not taken by Scottish Borders Council,” said a spokesperson for the local authority.

“The council is fully committed to supporting the event and exploring opportunities to grow upon the success of previous events.

“We worked extensively with the organisers, Hillside Outside, to consider alternative route options and ensure a fresh and engaging experience for participants and communities.

“We are hugely disappointed by the organisers’ decision to announce that there will not be a Tour o’ the Borders in 2024.

“Over the past few months, colleagues have taken part in many discussions with the organisers to enable the tour to continue in 2024. Throughout the process, we maintained an open line of communication with the organisers, offering our support and exploring alternative formats or options that would meet their requirements.

“We have been consistently encouraging the organisers to avoid making any decision about the 2024 event until after a full evaluation of this year’s event, which showcases a new route for 2023, had been completed.

“The implication was that if this year’s event was well received by participants, business and communities alike, it could present an opportunity to take forward the planning of the 2024 event.

“The council recognises the significance of this event and the positive economic impact that it can bring to the region.

“We put forward a number of options in relation to the 2024 event and would be happy to continue to work with the organisers, but unfortunately they have opted to announce that there will not be a 2024 event well in advance of this year’s event on Sunday, September 3, which is regrettable and, in our view, entirely avoidable.”

Hillside Outside director Neil Dalgleish disputes that version of events, however, saying: “What a terrible shame it’s come to this, Scottish Borders Council issuing disingenuous, deflecting statements and changing the narrative now to save face, happy to throw a local business and its credibility under the bus to save its own reputation.

“It’s utterly ridiculous to suggest that it was our own decision not to run the tour in 2024 or beyond. The event is of fundamental importance to us staying in business. That would be like if John Lewis decided it’d just close for a couple of months leading up to Christmas. Why would any business sabotage itself like that? They wouldn’t, of course, and for the council to suggest we would is ludicrous.

“The bottom line is that the council gave in wholesale to one community council’s desire for Tour o’ the Borders to go elsewhere, at the same time crossing its fingers that a new route could be found for the event. It ignored our warnings that it’s just not as easy as that, and, contrary to their statement, to date it still hasn’t suggested a single viable alternative.

“As an option, we offered to organise closed road events in locations of their choice if they were willing to pay for it, but that was declined, so we were expected to move the event – to somewhere else, anywhere, in the region – and take all the risk in doing so.

“Of course, we’ve looked at dozens of possibilities, but when the stats clearly showed nowhere else in the Borders can accommodate enough riders to even make the event viable, we let the council know immediately.

“It’s worth noting that road closures, police, emergency services, medics and everything else cost us scarily into six figures. Tour o’ the Borders has received no financial support from the council since 2016.

“If the council is now saying that an event in 2024, on either the 2022 or 2023 route, is a realistic option, that seems like a change of position and potentially great news – but that’s not ever been made clear to us. There’s no actual commitment, no genuine support, no real symbol of support for the tour, only political vagueness.

“The council said it would not take up any change of position from December’s no-event-here-until-2026 stipulation until after the 2023 event had taken place, and even then it’s subject to far too many ifs, buts and maybes for us to work with.

“We note that its statement suggests a review of its previous position “if the event is received well” this year. I can tell them it’s always been received well by thousands of people but will not be received well by the group who forced it to stop – they’re not going to suddenly start loving it. For our future to rest on their word is not acceptable. That’s just stopping the event without actually having to say so.

“If we were new to this, it might be easy to just hope for the best and go along with the suggestions of a brighter future, but I’m afraid past experience advises otherwise.

“Even if there is now a change of position from the council, there’s still no real sign of support, only a lot more words taking care to say very little. Real support for the tour would look a lot different to that wooliness.

“The council preferred us not to say anything about this situation, to keep hoping that something would turn up, but that would have been just another nail in the tour’s coffin, and anyway, none of our team were comfortable with the idea of just keeping quiet. We were always clear we’d have to let the public know we couldn’t run a 2024 event without using an existing route.

“The wait-and-see-if-opinions-change carrot is a fairly recent development and not workable for us to run a business, so we need to continue fighting for the event rather than let bureaucracy slowly deliver the inevitable outcome.

“Since the council has prepared the ground with its own viewpoint, let’s follow suit and speak truth to power, as the saying goes – a different outcome to this was possible, supporting an event so many people really care for, but the council unfortunately chose not to take it.

“It should not have excluded us from the community consultation process.

“It was more convenient for the council to make complaints – from a very small group of people, and not democratically robust at that – go away by conceding to them rather than challenging them.

“I understand that, but it’s been done at the expense of the interests of a far bigger group of non-complaining other people, though quite a few of them are complaining now.

“Sadly, this episode does make me question the level of the council’s genuine commitment to cycling.

“Glib suggestions that we just make it open roads or move it to somewhere more convenient demonstrate naivety and a lack of real understanding of cycling and cyclists.

“We need more ways to encourage people to use bikes, not to close opportunities down.

“Of course, not everyone agrees, and not everyone likes cycling, but it’s a democracy and of course it will leave some people unhappy.

“Council officers need to have enough gumption to deal with that, as some certainly have in the past.

“We need more live and let live, less selfishness and more willingness to work together, even if that has to be encouraged by policy.

“I’ve been promoting the Borders as a world-class cycling destination for the best part of 15 years, and if there’s another organisation which has made more of an impact in that respect than mine, I‘ll be surprised.

“This is a sad and disappointing situation.

“The wording coming from the council does not, in our opinion, give an accurate reflection of what has been happening over the past few months and demonstrates an unwillingness to accept responsibility on its part for how we’ve arrived here.

“Most sadly, and no matter what it says, it shows no genuine desire to support the event. For some, it’s all just politics.”

This year’s tour will be the tenth since the first was staged in 2012, although road closures have only been in force since 2014.

It’s billed by Hillside Outside as being the biggest mass-participation sporting event in the region, regularly attracting a turnout of 2,000 competitors or thereabouts.

This year’s 75-mile route, starting and finishing in Peebles, takes in Innerleithen, Traquair, Tweedsmuir, Cademuir and the Dumfries and Galloway town of Moffat, as well as St Mary’s Loch.

See also …

https://www.thesouthernreporter.co.uk/sport/other-sport/cyclings-tour-o-the-borders-could-be-nearing-end-of-road-fear-organisers-4184389