Stewarding and road closures to be addressed for 2018 Oswestry half marathon
Teething problems over Oswestry's new half marathon will be looked at in depth before next year's race is run.
Clive Knowles, chairman of the British Ironwork Centre, attended this week’s Oswestry Town Council to ask councillors to get on board and support the 2018 Oswestry Half Marathon.
One councillor said he would not like to put the council’s name to the event until some of the issues have been ironed out.
Councillor Duncan Kerr, who ran in the half marathon organised by UK RunChat, said he personally enjoyed the course and said from his point of view it seemed well organised.
“But there obviously are issues such as access and I don’t want to put our name to this until they have been addressed,” he said.
Councillor Olly Rose said she had been very concerned about some of the stewarding in the town centre and said she had to step in to help at a three-way junction.
“There were cars and runners everywhere, it was chaos,” she said.
A member of the public, Peter Abrey, made a statement to the council saying that the run began on the B5009 Queens Head to Whittington Road, Shropshire Council’s Highways department has decreed was a dangerous access and should not be used by the centre.
Mr Knowles said that the road had been closed for the half marathon so he could not see how it was a problem.
“We will be looking at getting our staff involved with some of the stewarding,” he said.
“We are brave enough at the British Ironwork Centre to do new things without fear of criticism. We had almost 1,000 people take part in the inaugural event. Next year we would like to grow the event and would very much like to have the support of the town council."
"Runners come from all over Britain to take part in these events and many bring their families with them. It is great for the local economy."
