TORFAEN council says it will welcome the Velothon back to the borough, but with conditions to prevent the problems that arose from this year’s event.

Yesterday Torfaen councillors were invited to a seminar on the Velothon presented by the council’s team leader for economy and tourism, Kate Blewitt.

This year’s event saw cyclists ride from Cardiff city centre, through Newport, Monmouthshire, Caerphilly, and Torfaen.

The seminar looked at what went well and what requires improvement.

Ms Blewitt highlight that the June 14 event WAS considered a success with over 10,000 cyclists taking part and £500,000 raised for charity.

She said it was the second largest cycling event in the UK and the tenth largest in the world.

It is due to return for the next three years.

But conditions must be in place to address problems that arose before the event, it was added. 20,000 people have already put their names forward to take part next year.

“It was the inaugural event and there is always teething issues,” Ms Blewitt said.

She told the meeting that it is estimated that the event brought more than £2 million into the region and the economy.

A debrief was carried out internally at the council and at an external meeting with Welsh Government and other authorities, along with the event organiser’s Lagardere.

She said that main problems were with project management from the event organisers, adding that a number of key time scales were missed.

Ms Blewitt said that traffic management plans were five months late and were inaccurate, which meant several versions had to be produced, using up council officers' time in checking.

She said that for the next event, the Welsh Government should take on a project management role to make sure that time scales are met.

She also said that advanced warning about road closures were meant to go up four weeks in advance but actually went up the week before. When signs did go up some were inaccurate - this meant that council officers then had to spend time sorting these out.

There were also issues with community engagement.

As part of this, fliers were to be sent to homes six weeks before. But the organisers had problems with the distribution company so these went out just one week before.

Torfaen council provided a list of companies to the organisers but is aware that some businesses were not contacted.

The organisers ran an information hotline, but the council have been informed that people were told they would get a call back within 24 hours which did not always happen.

Ms Blewitt went on to say that what went well must not be forgotten.

“As soon as the 2016 date is found then this is when the communication’s strategy needs to begin and then needs to continue flowing,” she added