A WEST Devon parish council met with organisers of one of the largest sporting events in the South West to address concerns raised by some residents.

Dartmoor Forest Parish Council produced a short survey to gauge opinion and seek feedback from residents, both positive and negative, about the Dartmoor Classic Cycle Sportive, which has been held annually since 2007, so that the parish council could talk to the organisers.

The Dartmoor Classic is organised by the Mid Devon Cycling Club and attracts participants from around the world. The route of the event goes through much of the Dartmoor Forest parish, including the main communities of Princetown, Postbridge and Hexworthy.

Parish clerk Steve Cox said: ‘In recent years the parish council has received concerns and complaints from some residents about the event and wanted to know how widespread the feeling was.

‘The council has had discussions with Mid Devon Cycling Club about the impact of the event in the past and has maintained a constructive and open dialogue with the organisers. It should be highlighted that the consultation was not about a particular sport or pastime — indeed many in the parish are keen and enthusiastic cyclists — but about a specific large event that goes through the parish.

‘The parish council would equally seek residents’ views on any issue or event that they believed had a wide impact across our community. The council recognises that maintaining the balance between those who live, work and visit Dartmoor can sometimes present challenges, however what we hope unites us is the love and appreciation of this very special part of the world.’

The survey was sent out to the 533 households in the parish and 101 surveys were returned, equivalent to one fifth of the parish.

From the surveys returned, 58% said they were affected by the event; 46% said it had a negative effect on them, 26% said it had no impact while the remaining 28% said it had a positive impact on them; people were split nearly evenly over whether they were happy or unhappy about the event; 55% said they believed the event helped to promote Dartmoor and didn’t mind it for one day in the year.

Some of the negative comments returned with the survey included: ‘Too many riders all bunched up so couldn’t get past and get out of side roads. Riders were two or three abreast — highway code says single file on busy roads and it was pretty busy that day’, ‘The aggressive and rude attitude of a vast majority of the cyclists and their total disregard for the rules of the road are unacceptable and it does nothing for the village or surrounding area’, ‘Visitors avoid coming to Dartmoor on that date because it is chaotic with all the bikes. The cyclists have no respect for other road users and some are totally dangerous’.

Some of the positive comments included: ‘I think it is a good idea. Princetown needs things like this’, ‘Happy to see some of these amazing events on the moors. Fantastic’, ‘One month after I served a group of eight cyclists returning to the area. Five had not done the cycle but three had. Two even stayed at a B&B overnight in Dartmoor. A great advert for the area’

Representatives of the Dartmoor Classic met with members of the parish council to discuss the results of the survey and to address some of the concerns that had been raised. The organisers recognised that historically the event had been very much cyclist-focused and that more needed to be done to engage the local communities that were on the route of the event. They wished to stress that the event was a volunteer-run, not-for-profit event, which provided donations to local charities and organisations.

Stewart Bergman, spokesperson for the Dartmoor Classic, said: ‘We’re very pleased to have had the opportunity to meet with the council to discuss the survey and to address a number of misconceptions and issues raised by its findings.

‘Working with local communities on the moor is very important to us as that helps us to understand their needs and concerns. The survey has been a huge help in this respect enabling us to develop a series of new initiatives that are designed to diminish the level of disruption caused by the one-day event, which otherwise brings much needed money in to the local economy on many different levels.

‘The biggest issue identified by those with concerns about the Dartmoor Classic related to the past conduct of cyclists leading to traffic delays and frustration. To address this, we were pleased to announce that a new “Code of Conduct” for cyclists and for event marshalls will be introduced in 2017 to improve traffic flow and to reduce inconvenience caused to other road users on the day of the event.

‘We also unveiled plans to employ police motorcyclists to patrol the route to ensure all are using the roads responsibly. We also confirmed that there are no plans for the event to grow in size and announced that there will be a significant increase in the number of advance notice signs placed around the route to remind people of the event date, enabling them to plan accordingly.’

Mr Berman wanted to reassure people that the event brought direct and indirect financial benefit to the parish and recognised that greater efforts needed to be made to communicate this to residents. He said that it was estimated by Visit South Devon that the event brought in over £500,000 annually during the event alone and that the club had helped raise more than £150,000 for local organisations and charities, including Devon Air Ambulance Trust, Dartmoor Search and Rescue, Dartmoor National Park Authority and Princetown Primary School.

Mr Bergman added: ‘The meeting with the parish council gave us the opportunity to announce a number of other plans for 2017 too, including initiatives to help support local businesses across Dartmoor, community projects and schools.

‘We hope that combined, these efforts will address the main concerns raised on the survey, enabling all to embrace the annual, one-day celebration of cycling that brings considerable joy to thousands of people visiting and living on the moor.’