The Tour de France starts in Leeds on Saturday (5 July 2014). It will be a fantastic spectacle, but it will also disrupt life in Leeds on the day. Are you prepared?
The race itself sets off from the Town Hall at 11:10am, but the procession – the ‘publicity caravan’ – starts at 9am. Road closures in the city centre take effect from midnight on Friday 4 July and last through to 3pm on Saturday 5 July. Closures on the route out to Harewood, following the A61 up Scott Hall Road run from 4:30am to 3pm on Saturday 5 July.
Although these closures don’t directly affect us in South Leeds, the traffic disruption is bound to affect us, so if you plan to travel you are advised to allow extra time for your journey even if it doesn’t take you near the race route.
With thousands of extra people in the city, health bosses have put plans in place to manage the extra demand on health services.
Jason Broch, local GP and Clinical Chair for NHS Leeds North CCG said:
“We are asking anyone who needs advice or treatment over the weekend to phone 111 before setting off on their journey as they may be directed to a different location away from the Tour De France route. The 111 operators will know which services are best able to help and will be able to tell people the best place to go. People should still phone 999 in an emergency.”
Local people are also being encouraged to make sure they are prepared for the weekend by getting repeat prescriptions early in the week and checking out any road closures in case the route goes past a weekend service that they might normally use.
You can find out everything you need to know about the Grand Depart including road closures, city centre car and cycle parking, places to watch the race, etc on the Leeds City Council website: www.leeds.gov.uk/residents/Pages/GrandDepart.aspx.
Thanks for this Jeremy, that’s really useful information.
Lucy
Wow, a lot of fuss for a bike ride. Each to their own I suppose …