A call to end Pembrokeshire County Council’s support for the annual Long Course Weekend triathlon event which it is said has left south county communities ”at breaking point” is to be heard this week.
Billed as ‘Europe’s largest multi-sport festival’, the event features swim, bike and run over a variety of distances, with the elite athletes completing all three disciplines at maximum distance to earn the coveted Long Course Weekend medal.
The Tenby-based multi-day triathlon events have been held in the summer since 2010 in the county, but concerns have been raised about loss of trade and inconvenience due to road closures associated with it.
Saundersfoot county councillors, Cllr Chris Williams and Cllr Alec Cormack are to ask, at the December 12 meeting of Pembrokeshire County Council’s full council, that the council withdraw support for the annual Long Course Weekend.
Their Notice of Motion says: “This multi-day triathlon event, typically taking place in June, has been a significant success in terms of showcasing our county and promoting physical activity. However, as the event has grown in scale, it has increasingly led to disruption for residents and businesses along the course, many of whom report inconvenience or loss of trade due to road closures spanning up to three days.
“While Pembrokeshire County Council does not provide direct financial contributions to the event, it offers substantial ‘in-kind’ support. Given the feedback from residents and businesses, it is evident that public support for the event has diminished. Additionally, in light of the council’s ongoing financial pressures, it is no longer appropriate to allocate resources to support a profit-driven event at the expense of taxpayers.”
It ends, proposing that “PCC withdraw all support for the Long Course Weekend moving forward, ensuring that council resources are directed towards services and initiatives that directly benefit the wider community”.
In a supporting statement, the two councillors say the event has now “reached a scale where its negative impacts are impossible to ignore in village communities,” and “the continued support of the LCW by Pembrokeshire County Council (PCC) is no longer justifiable”.
“Our community is at breaking point; residents and businesses in Saundersfoot, Amroth, Wisemans Bridge and Coppet Hall are effectively cut-off for the majority of a Saturday each June/July by the Long Course Weekend two-lap bike race. Many other areas of South Pembs are similarly affected, some on both Saturday and Sunday if they are also on the run course too.”
It adds: “Community support for the event, which began on a much smaller scale and without road closures, has always been based on the argument of the event representing a ‘greater good’ for Pembrokeshire as a whole – especially to businesses in the Tenby and surrounding area, even if it had a negative effect on Saundersfoot and Amroth.
“However, [at a meeting on September 11 this year] where county councillors from the whole route provided community feedback it seemed to us that there were no councillors enthusiastically supporting the event in its current form and its current location.”
They finished: “There is a mounting sense of frustration in our wards that the Long Course Weekend is a fait accompli and will always take place each year in the same place, in more or less the same way. We therefore ask councillors to support our motion to end the council’s support of Long Course Weekend in its current form.”