Release Date: 02/08/2012

Council thanks residents for making Olympics happen

Richmond Council would like to say a big ‘thank you’ to all local residents and businesses who helped transform Richmond upon Thames into an Olympic venue over the last eight days.

Hundreds of thousands of people lined the streets and the riversides around the borough for the torch relays on the 24 and 27 July, the men’s and women’s cycling road races on the 28 and 29 and the Time Trial events on the 1 August.

The Council is extending a big ‘thank you’ to all local residents and businesses for helping to make the week a success.

Cllr Geoffrey Samuel, Richmond Council Cabinet Member for Finance and Resources and Chairman of the Council’s Strategic Olympics Programme Board, said:

“This weekend will be remembered as a time when Richmond upon Thames was on the sporting world stage, with some of the best male and female cyclists from around the world riding through our borough and thousands of people cheering them on from the roadside.

“I know that for this to happen many residents changed their weekend routines to accommodate the races, by moving their cars away from the route, changing their travel plans or indeed accommodating thousands of spectators outside their front doors. I am also aware that the events had a big impact on our businesses. I would like to thank them all for their cooperation and understanding.

“During the lead up to the Olympic events we tried hard to make sure that everyone in an impacted area was aware of the events. For example we held over 20 road shows, sent out 3 leaflets to all households within 400 metres of the route, placed articles and adverts in the local paper and over 1,500 street signs and sent over 1,000 tweets. And it worked – we only had to remove a handful of vehicles from the race route.

“Thank you to all residents who helped make these events possible.”

Richmond residents have already started to contact the Council to say how much they enjoyed the experience. Twitter user, Ms T said, “@LBRUT Thank you for the great organisation of a fantastic Olympic event over the weekend, was an amazing day.” and Andrew Phall said, “Olympic road cycling has been sensational, free, accessible, competitive and brilliantly organised. And on our doorstep. @LBRUT.”

Richmond upon Thames has now returned to normal following eight days of road race, time trial and Olympic Torch action.