2019 Road Worlds ‘closed Harrogate town centre for a month’ says council report

"An important conclusion reached was that there was a common perception"

So we are making decisions on perceptions rather than trying to correct them?

Purely anecdotal, but I travelled up to Yorkshire to take part in the sportive.  Didn't feel good on the day so just visited Harrogate instead (on a rainy Sunday) with my wife and the friend we were staying with.  The town centre was packed, although not all the shops were open - fair enough on a Sunday.  We added some money to the £17.8m in Betty's tearooms and the wife spent some money in a clothes shop!  I suspect the local businesses wouldn't normally have done that well on rainy Sunday out of the holiday season.  Unfortunately some people will always look at the negatives and miss the positives - Harrogate is a lovely town and having seen it briefly we will visit in the future as tourists.

Councillor Nick Brown was against hosting the World Champs, doesn't want pedestrianisation, wants low parking charges, and believes motorists are knocked or made to feel unwelcome.

He's all about cars, cars, cars, and whatever he wrote in this report should be read in that context.

My personal anecdata: a gear cable from Halfords, a couple of rounds of drinks, a screwdriver from a town centre hardware store, (which didn't seem to be affected at all by road closures or crowds) and a particularly good Chinese takeaway on Harlow hill. (50% of which I wouldn't have needed had my derailleur cable not snapped at the bottom of Norwood edge!) Multiply this (50%) by the half dozen people I set off to Harrogate with, none of whom would have been spending money in Harrogate town centre on a Saturday afternoon normally, just a small contribution to the £17.8m. And that £17.8m would probably have been much higher had it not poured down on the Sunday.

Quote:

the event effectively closed down the centre of Harrogate not just for the nine days of the UCI

Is that like the Nine Days Queen - a troublesome interlude that enjoyed brief popularity before being destroyed by powerful vested interests...?

The weird thing about all of this is that I went there for the weekend, in the middle of it all. And I was able to drive in to Harrogate, get parked, stay in a local hotel, eat out in restaurants, drink in bars and do a bit of shopping. Most places were packed out. The only inconvenience was a slightly contorted route in from the motorway to allow for some of the road closures. I wouldn't have done any of that, had the event not been hosted there. Must have been a real tragedy for the town to only get a £17.8m uplift in economic activity and global media coverage!

That's a shame. Send it my way instead. 2023? Sorted!

On a more optimistic note they accept that:

'It was positive that the study appeared to show the event inspired people to do more sport and active recreation generally and there were some parallel with comments received as part of the Group’s public consultation'

They could have focused on the £17.8 million boost to the economy instead. 

This sounds absolutely ghastly, and can only conclude that future events of this scale, scope and magnitude be sent to some grotty little market town that doesn't have any trade anyway so wouldn't be affected. Say, Manchester.

Though I suppose we could let them keep children's balance bike racing.

Interesting language: "An important conclusion reached was that there was a common perception that the event effectively closed down the centre of Harrogate"

So basically people thought it did sort of? I don't know the ins and outs of what went on, having not been able to make it up there, to my regret, but that's equivocal to say the least.