Sportive Kinross – The Directors Cut Part 4

10/03/2011

Meeting the council and asking the Police ‘Anyone who isn’t confused doesn’t really understand the situation’ The Iron Duke One of my favourite quotes and it is one I use quite often is ‘Anyone who isn’t confused doesn’t really understand the situation’ The quote originates from an American TV journalist reporting on the Vietnam War way back in the 1960’s when many of the entrants for Sportive Kinross were just children, some were grown up and a fair number were not born. I make reference to this quote as it sums up my reaction to, particularly the council when I met them and to lesser degree the Police. I must stress both parties have been excellent to deal with, very positive in their approach, wanting to see the event proceed and in essence very helpful. I say this in case any members of the constabulary or local authority are reading this. I think you are great guys, with a difficult task to do. In fact as I write this (I started writing this on the 18th November 2010, then the snowmen arrived and I was taken hostage at my work – apologies it’s been long time in the finishing! It’s the 9th March 2011 just now) we have just arranged another meeting with them (the meeting was held in December) to finalise details and highlight any issues the event may or may not present. When the idea of the event was first hatched Police and Local Council consent were considered rather important, consent from the local councillors as well as the council officials.  We thought, initially at least the Police had the power to refuse permission for the event under ‘The Cycle Racing on Highways (Scotland) Regulations 1960’. However, of course a sportive is not a race it’s technically speaking a fun event. So despite the evident displeasure one senior officer expressed about our evil plans to populate the roads (I know this due to a kind of local version of wiki leaks) with hoards of swarming cyclists they could not actually stop it. We did not require their formal consent. I guess under some law stemming back to the time when the Duke of Wellington was Prime Minster in the late 1820’s and crowd control was for first time becoming a significant issue for the state (something to do with those French revolutionaries) they possibly could. In the event they have not sought to stop us and the Police liaison officer we have had has been an absolute peach to deal with. No pushover, my overtures for the plans were viewed with an evident but well disguised degree of suspicion in the initial exchange. At least whilst I admitted this was our first such event and until I presented our case in a written format explaining the motivations for the event and the issues we had indentified.  Revealing how we had sought to address the issues and of course reinforcing the essentially community minded motivations for staging such an event. So after that meeting our Police officer set off to seek the blessing of the states security services which we  received and they been truly excellent in assisting our event planning. The council was a little different. My initial contacts were with local councilors who all greeted the idea with a suppressed delight subject to the caveat that we do not seek any road closures. Road closures equal angry residents. However like all forms of public disruption a paradox is set up. As allowing such an event means travel tourism. The event becomes an annual event and annual events equal a boost to the local economy as visitors from the surrounding areas and lands far beyond (we have one rider travelling from Ireland this year) flock to the area. So when I spoke to the councils economic development officer and arranged a meeting via email. I went along to that meeting with the expectation of a monarch visiting peoples in a far off land. Having spent most of my working life in residential development I have grown used to council meetings with planners where you are viewed with suspicion, distrust and depending on the planning officer a desire to stop your plans in their tracks. So I entered the offices of PKC with an air of excited expectation, a belief I would be greeted with a wave of enthusiasm. I arrived to be told ‘…no, he does not work here’ I had gone to the wrong offices, thinking (incorrectly, I now realised) the entire council had been re-housed in the swanky new offices they had developed. Hurriedly I scurried off to the other council building I knew of, thinking that was where the charmless young lady meant. Here I was greeted by an almost hostile women who said ‘…no, he does not work here, he works over the ROAD!’. I limped across the road, my sense of regality had been swept away by now as I was becoming increasingly late. I trundled up to the other building tentatively approached yet another receptionist to be told ‘he works up the stairs’. Off I shot, hopes renewed. I was greeted politely by my host and introduced to his boss. My explanation for the late arrival tendered and apologies accepted. We sat down to talk business, my expectations and hopes of a warm and effusive discussion about how good our plans were, and what a terrific idea this was were quickly dispelled when I was asked why where we calling it Sportive Kinross and not calling it Sportive Loch Leven or Loch Leven Sportive or some such variant. My heart released an internal scream, my brain said secretly to me these guys must have been planners in a past life. In turn I set about patiently explaining the club organising the event are called Kinross Cycling Club whilst thinking inside 'need I explain more about the name?' knowing the answer would be ‘Yes, you will have to.’