Bike-race boost for town centre

OLDHAM’S recent tour cycling event proved a wheely big money-spinner and tourism boost for the town.

Around £100,000 was spent in the town centre on the day of the Halford Tour Series event, back in June.

Around 3,000 people flocked to the town centre — more than half of them first-time or infrequent visitors.

Oldham Council received an overwhelmingly positive response from members of the public and from main sponsors, Halfords, who say the organisation of the event was ‘much better than others”.

Organisers were given just a few months to prepare after Manchester pulled out. International riders called the 1.5 mile course the second toughest in the series of eight, Oldham being the only North-West track.

The series of race contests, which took place on a specially-adapted 1.5 mile track, attracted around 140,000 television viewers on ITV4, who screened an hour-long prime-time programme.

Councillor Dave Hibbert believes Oldham should build on the achievement.

He said: “It’s been a been a brilliant success and this should be the second stage of bringing tourism into Oldham. This event has been top of the market, but we should not lose momentum. We should build on it and use its full benefit.”