British Cycling Accredited Marshalls Programme

[Phil H]

From British Cycling.

In summary, an accredited marshall is legally empowered to stop traffic. Only on a road race mind - you can't use these powers whenever you take the fancy

[quote][size=150]Accredited Marshals sought[/size]
The region kick started the process to deploy Accredited Marshals on road racing events back in 2014 and progress is being made to roll it out in Surrey this year. We now seek expressions of interest, or if you expressed an interest in 2014 for you to reconfirm this. If you decide to train as an Accredited Marshal, you will receive FREE British Cycling Bronze membership for a year. You will also receive a contribution to your travel costs to the races that you cover. British Cycling provide more details at: [url]http://tinyurl.com/jcora4d[/url]

To prepare for this scheme, a training session will be held for about four hours and the proposed dates are the 16th and/or 17th of April with a venue possibly in the Kingston upon Thames area. Your travel costs to this training, lunch and/or refreshments will be provided. In addition an online course of about an hour is needed, through the British Cycling website, prior to the training event.

It is proposed to hold Accredited Marshals on the following road races:

1st May at 10am - Bletchingley - 10 AM's required
26th May at 7.15pm - Ottershaw - 8 AM's required
9th June at 7.15pm - Kitsmead Lane (near Ottershaw) - 7 AM's required
18th June at 1.30pm - Norwood Hill (near Gatwick Airport) - 9 AM's required
19th June at 9.30am - Dunsfold - 7 AM's required
7th July at 7.15pm - Ottershaw (near Ottershaw) - 8 AM's required
10th July at 10am - Bletchingley - 10 AM's required
28th July at 7.15pm - Kitsmead Lane - 7 AM's required
14th August at 9.30am - Norwood Hill (near Gatwick Airport) - 9 AM's required
29th August at 9.30am - Dunsfold - 7 AM's required
Please note the following commitment that British Cycling seek of those who complete the training:

To attend the training on the 16th or 17th of April
Commit to attend five of the events listed above, or as many as possible
Provide your name, address, email address, telephone number, and British Cycling membership number (don't worry if you do not have one) to: Simon Bedford at British Cycling: simonbedford@britishcycling.org.uk
If you have any questions, please contact Simon Bedford. Thank you for your support and patience in getting this scheme up and running.

Phillip Jemmison
British Cycling South East Region Secretary

[MattR]

Well that's awkward given I and others have offered to Marshal the ACC Open 25.

[Phil H]

I didn't look at the dates. That's awkward. It does say "or".

[MattR]

[quote="Phil H"]It does say "or".

[Phil H]

You should be able to spot these things. 16 or 17 is 17. 16 and 17 is 16,

(That's only for programmers BTW)

[Marek]

If we do not have that many accredited marshals at these races and just marshals what will happen?

[Phil H]

It's a good question Marek. I think that's why they're trialling in Surrey with just 10 races this year.

One thing it does do is remove the promoting clubs from largely being responsible for getting marshalls. It's up to BC to ensure that there are sufficient at each race. BC seem confident. The marshalls will be operating like the NEG motorbikes - paid reasonable expenses.

One thing about BC AMs taking over is that people will have to tell me that they've helped so they don't end up on the naughty list.

[Marek]

So you will need quite a few AM else these guys are going to have to give up a lot of weekends. Not sure I would want to put my name down to be an AM if I needed to commit to a high number of races. Might be good for those that are retired from racing or like standing at the side of the road waving a red flag and stopping the traffic.

From having a few chats with the NEG guys, they get a buzz from doing the motorbike thing, whizzing up and down the race etc, don't see the the same attraction for a AM on the side of the road.

Or are they expecting each club to get like 8 to 10 AM so that basically those people are the AM's and you have to supply those people for each road race you promote?

[Paul H]

Realistically it will mean less Road Racing on the road.

What is it trying to fix? I havnt seen cars causing accidents in races.

When I was at the Surrey League AGM, the Commissaires said to me it would be the end of the handicaps due to lack of AMs

[Marek]

This does not sound good, is there any way that the club can put some pressure on the Surrey League to abandon this idea?

[Phil H]

It is difficult to know how this will pan out. At the moment, it is selected races, not all races.

As far as I understand the law involved, races that currently happen under the Cycle Racing on the Highways Regulations (1960 - and subsequent amendments) will still be legal. However, if British Cycling were to demand AMs for all races, then, apart from LVRC races then what they say would go. Unless there were a breakaway movement.

When I first read up on this, the stipulation that AMs must marshall at five events a year seemed likely to put people off. They seem to be backing off that a bit now.

We shall see. This is a BC initiative. They seem to think that having marshalls with the legal power to stop traffic will aid safety. I am a little sceptical given the number of drivers I see running red lights, talking of cellphones, speeding, openly playing Chris de Burgh CDs ...

[MattR]

[quote="Phil H"]You should be able to spot these things. 16 or 17 is 17. 16 and 17 is 16,

(That's only for programmers BTW)

[Phil H]

I was using a bitwise or/and, not a logical one. Otherwise 16 && 17 == true, 16 || 17 == true.

I think I should stop now.

[Marek]

Phil, how many volunteers did you get for this programme?

Cheers

Marek

[Phil H]

No idea - BC are handling it; I'm just passing on the message. Last I heard they had had some. I'm also getting mixed messages as to who is pushing this - BC or the police.

Anyhow, I have been told that if they can't get enough, races will continue with red flag marshalls.