What he tell you off for? Making progress? 😆

Going tomorrow for the first time in 6 years, but will be walking up so no traffic problems for us.

5 horses died so far this meeting 🙁

What he tell you off for? Making progress?

being on the wrong side of the dashed white line... go figure?

Used to suffer the same during Ascot week Drunks in their rollers and the coppers just wave them on.

Cant stand the whole thing, town full of chavy wasters.
Crap for business unless you are in the hospitality trade.

And the town is also full of drunk students on rag week, swinging their collection tins, and then emptying them later for a few drinks.

"5 horses died so far this meeting "

I think it's only fair they should shoot the jockey with the horse

mrmo - Member

What he tell you off for? Making progress?

being on the wrong side of the dashed white line... go figure?

He sounds like he was bored then.

Cheltenham is a little mad though when the Gold Cup is on.

I used to sell Bino's on a stand at the Che. Gold Cup and remember one of our friends from over the water pulling a wad of £20's out of a Tesco carrier bag to buy the 'best pair' of Leica Bino's we had on the stand, from a win that day of £40k, he nearly walked off leaving the carrier bag on our stand too! 😯

RestlessNative - Member

"5 horses died so far this meeting "

I think it's only fair they should shoot the jockey with the horse

Worst of all no Countdown on tv this weeks because of it!!!!

decided to ride lecky tonight, only just realised driving from glos may take a while 😳

Your not the only one MR MO lucky i have this week of 1st time in 14 years of doing lates.So dont have to work in it with drunks falling in front of the van.Sick and all sorts of food left in letterboxes.police are a nightmare this week.Have spent most of the week out of the town.My side of the town you would not know the races was on.

well lecky was quiet, only saw one guy on a white HT who shot past us 😯

Worth, if I remember correctly, £14m to the local economy, so don't go looking those gift horses in the mouth.

I used to find it was the safest week to commute on the bike, as none of the traffic was moving... Driving through town on Friday evening is like being in a scene from Night of the Living Dead though.

Worth, if I remember correctly, £14m to the local economy, so don't go looking those gift horses in the mouth.

And how much does it cost the local community? if your in hospitality it makes you money, but empty shops in the town centre, fuel burnt in traffic jams, policing, tidying up vomit, etc, etc. and who is paying for all that?

As for safe commuting, the number of cars i have almost been hit by as they move to avoid pissed up race goers, and the number of race goers i have almost hit!

[i]if your in hospitality it makes you money[/i]

And where do the thousands of extra staff employed by the bars, takeaways, restaurants and clubs spend their extra wages? And the large amounts of extra cash earned by the taxi drivers, where does that go? And the overtime earned by the police (much of the cost of the policing will be paid by the racecourse)?

It obviously causes disruption, but it is a massive earner for the local economy. Cheltenham is a prosperous town, and the racing has a lot to do with that.

I was wrong, its £50 million:

[url= http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-gloucestershire-17337633 ]Martin Quantock, Cheltenham's town centre manager, said local residents had a perception that the town centre was gridlocked during the week, but it was actually "the best time ever" for shopping.[/url]

As I said hospitality does ok,

As for town centre manager talking up his job, he was hardly likely to say anything else.

As he said great time to shop as town centre empty.

I would also like to see where he gets 50 million from and how much double counting that includes, and how much goes to local businesses and how much to national chains.

over 10 million a day? Sorry I find that hard to believe.

I think the 50m figure is over a wider 'local' area to be fair. I was out for a meal in Cirencester on Tuesday and the restaurant was full, which it certainly wouldn't be on a normal week, it was obviously all race goers.

And a lot of the money will go to local businesses. Every pub in a fifteen mile radius of town is offering 'race breakfasts', every B&B and hotel in a fifty mile radius is fully booked for the week. Loads of people rent out rooms or houses. And even if it is national chains, they're all employing local people.

At the end of the day, the races brings tens (hundreds?) of thousands of people into the area with, and in the case of the Irish literally, bags full of cash. They leave with those bags empty and much of the cash, directly or indirectly, finds its way into the pockets of local people. Cheltenham's economy benefits hugely from the races, without it it'd be like Evesham or Tewkesbury, a two-bit provincial Nowheresville.

so what your actually saying is that Cheltenham only exists because of the national hunt festival? that the detail that Cheltenham is now as big if not bigger than Gloucester is because of a 3-4 day festival that happens once a year? The existance of GE, Messier, Capita, etc is irrelevant?

Written by somebody who has little understanding of the local economy 🙄

No, what I said was "Cheltenham's economy benefits hugely from the races".

Of course there are other local economic drivers and large employers. But, as an example, why are Capita in town? Because they took over the Zurich contract. Why are they in town? Because they bought Eagle Star. Why did Eagle Star relocate to town in the first place? Because the Chairman at the time was a horse racing fan... I know it's an extreme example, but the intangible benefits of bringing well-to-do and well-connected folks with influence into the area shouldn't be overlooked either.

Maybe the comparison to Evesham or Tewkesbury was a bit silly, but so is saying (if that is what you are saying) that, accepting that disruption of the week can be a pain in the @rse, there is not a large net benefit of the Festival to the economy of the town.

[i]Written by somebody who has little understanding of the local economy[/i]

Who, me?

yes the festival brings benefits, it also brings huge disruption and huge costs to the local economy that get ignored because they don't suit the interests of those who can make decisions.

who cares about a few drunk drivers, people pissing in doorways, etc etc.... it is all about the money.

that Cheltenham is now as big if not bigger than Gloucester

ha ha - id just like to be the first to say 'daddy, daddy buy me a pony'!

I still think they should do the motor racing round the prom 😆 😯